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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27804187">A Jukebox Cinderella</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MollyBear3/pseuds/MollyBear3'>MollyBear3</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cinderella Elements, F/F, F/M, Lesbian Flynn (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:16:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>38,864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27804187</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MollyBear3/pseuds/MollyBear3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Julie's backup recording of 'Wake Up' gets lost and Luke finds it. After listening to it, Luke is determined to find the girl with the amazing pipes. Better summary and tags to come as the story develops.</p><p>*Timeline editing is done. I really think it will help the flow of the piece.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn &amp; Julie Molina &amp; Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Reggie/Carrie Wilson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>465</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Julie I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julie really had to hand it to Flynn and Carrie. The complex system they had set up just so she could stay in the music program were next level. All Julie had to do record herself performing and submit the soundtrack to count towards her performance grade. In other life, this would make things so much easier, but …. </p><p>Julie had not played music since her mother died. Period. Full stop. How was she supposed to play again?</p><p>Apparently, the answer was alone in her garage-turned-studio with a song her mother had left for her on the piano in hopes she would return to music in her own time. (Carrie had found it when she had gone in to find a special scrunchie for a Dirty Candy performance about a month ago.) It would be her first time even listening to music, so, as much as they wanted to listen to Julie blow them away with her talent, Carrie and Flynn were waiting upstairs in her room for her. </p><p>Alone with the grand piano, Julie took a second to really take it all in. The studio looked like the last day mother was in there. If anything, there might be a small layer of dust on the furniture and instruments which is to be expected. Julie didn’t come out here anymore, and neither Carlos nor her father ever really have a reason to come out. </p><p>Running her eyes over the same old walls and same old furniture, she couldn’t tell what she felt, standing in the doorway of the studio. Part of her wanted to be furious, (How <em>dare</em> does this place not mourn for <em>her mother</em>?) but it made sense that it didn’t change. Her mother always said that music was about connecting people through time and place, that the greatest composers and musicians lived on after their deaths so long as their music was played.</p><p>Walking over to the piano, Julie found the song her mother left for her exactly how she left it: waiting to be played. Settling into the piano bench and spreading her fingers over the keys, Julie felt herself step up to the precipice she had been avoiding for a year since her mother died. For so long, she felt that if she did this, it would be a direct disrespect to her mother’s memory, that acknowledging she was really gone and moving on was like some kind of awful betrayal to her mother. It was only after finding the note her mother left her on the back of the song that Julie decided to try again.</p><p>Taking a deep breath, Julie let her fingers dance along the keys of her mother’s piano, letting the music ebb and flow in the air around her.</p><p>
  <em>Here's one thing I want you to know<br/>
You got some place to go<br/>
Life's a test, yes, but you go toe-to-toe<br/>
You don't give up, no, you grow</em>
</p><p>Julie felt reborn. Memories of learning to play piano and writing music with her mom filtered through her mind, feeding her high from music.</p><p>
  <em>And you use your pain<br/>
‘Cause it makes you you<br/>
Though I wish I could hold you through it<br/>
I know it’s not the same<br/>
You got living to do<br/>
And I just want you to do it</em>
</p><p>
  <em>So get up, get out, relight that spark<br/>
You know the rest by heart</em>
</p><p>The lyrics wrapped around the wounds of her soul like a bandage, and Julie, unable or unwilling, played her heart out, losing herself in the words left to her by her mother. </p><p>
  <em>Wake up, wake up if it's all you do<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
It's not what you lost<br/>
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain<br/>
Wake up your dream and make it true<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
It's not what you lost<br/>
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark<br/>
Wake up, wake up</em>
</p><p>It was almost like hearing the song out of her mother’s mouth, and the message was coming to Julie loud and clear. It was time for Julie to push through all the dark numbness she had suffered over the last year and to move past her mother’s death.</p><p>
  <em>Better wake those demons<br/>
Just look them in the eye<br/>
No reason not to try<br/>
Life can be a mess<br/>
I won't let it cloud my mind<br/>
I'll let my fingers fly</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And I use the pain 'cause it's part of me<br/>
And I'm ready to power through it<br/>
Gonna find the strength, find the melody<br/>
'Cause you showed me how to do it</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Get up, get out, relight that spark<br/>
You know the rest by heart</em>
</p><p>Julie felt a strength bubble up in her, giving her the courage to play on. She felt like a diamond that had been unearthed after so many years of pressure to form the perfect stone.</p><p>
  <em>Wake up, wake up if it's all you do<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
It's not what you lost<br/>
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain<br/>
Wake up your dream and make it true<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
It's not what you lost<br/>
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark<br/>
Wake up, wake up</em>
</p><p>
  <em>So wake that spirit, spirit<br/>
I wanna hear it, hear it<br/>
No need to fear it, you're not alone<br/>
You're gonna find your way, oh</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Wake up, wake up if it's all you do<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
It's not what you lost<br/>
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain<br/>
Wake up your dream and make it true<br/>
Look out, look inside of you<br/>
When you feel lost<br/>
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark<br/>
Wake up, mm, wake up</em>
</p><p>As the final notes came to a close, Julie felt lighter, like she had finally put down all the pain she carried since her mother died. She was far from done with her journey, but she had made real progress in the right direction by playing again.</p><p>Julie took her time in putting away the recording equipment and making the CD and the backup ready for Ms. Harrison, letting herself really soak in this personal victory.</p><p>When Julie emerged from the studio, she wasn’t surprised to see Flynn and Carrie waiting for her just a few feet away. Too content to do much else than softly smile, Julie just gave a small laugh and said, “I thought you were going to wait for me upstairs?”</p><p>“We were, but then we remembered that we have to actually make homeroom,” Carrie playfully snipped. Flynn gave Carrie a small push (she was still not wholly convinced Carrie wasn’t going to turn around and hurt them again) but Julie just gave another laugh to her friends before grabbing her bag and making her way down the driveway to Carrie’s car. (Having a rich somewhat absent rockstar dad apparently had its perks.) </p><p>“So … how did it go?” Flynn asked as soon as she had fallen in step with Julie. Carrie, being on the other side of Julie, shot a small look at Flynn as they approached her car.</p><p>“It … went,” Julie supplied unhelpfully as the three girls placed their bags in Carrie’s trunk and piled into the car. Carrie drove, naturally, and (in the only time Flynn willingly gave up the front seat) Julie rode shotgun while Flynn took up the backseat.</p><p>“I don’t mean to push, but by went…?” Carrie prompted while pulling up her Spotify on her phone.</p><p>“I got the recording for Ms. Harrison, don’t worry,” Julie provided with a smile. Flynn and Carrie shared a moment of happiness for their friend, letting out cheers of encouragement, before Carrie locked her phone and sent a questioning look to Flynn. Julie, not knowing what her friends were up to, just gave them questioning looks.</p><p>Flynn, seeming to understand what Carrie was suggesting (though Julie sure didn’t), cleared her throat before looking down at her shoes. “Jules?” she called. </p><p>Julie turned to look at her normally boisterous friend. “What’s up, Flynn?” Julie inquired gently.</p><p>“Do you think we could listen to it?” asked Flynn, still making eye contact with her shoes.</p><p>Julie was a little taken back. Sure, she knew on some level someone would listen to her recording, but to watch someone do just that seemed too daring for her. She almost said no when she realized that it might be a good idea to at least listen to the track before trying it in, and her friends would never say anything against her. Not letting herself talk herself out of it, Julie quickly got out of the car, skipped to the trunk, opened it up, grabbed the backup out of her bag, and run back into the car to hand the CD off to Carrie, who starred at Julie for only a second before putting the CD into the player and letting it load.</p><p>As Carrie drove to school, the girls listened to Julie’s recording over and over, becoming more and more elated with every playing. By the time, Carrie pulled into the school’s parking lot, the girls were a giggling mass with random improvs on the melody here and there. Fortunately, there was no one in the parking lot to witness their small bout of insanity. Unfortunately, that was because the warning bell for homeroom was about to go off.</p><p>The pack of girls quickly grabbed their bags and made for their first class of the day. So focused on getting to their first class, Julie hadn't noticed that the backup CD she had hastily stashed haphazardly into her bag had slipped out and fallen to the ground.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Luke I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luke was not a great student. His grades were fine (a requirement to stay in the band according to his mother), and he never disrupted class (detentions got in the way of the band), but attendance was something he really struggled with from time to time. Thankfully, his homeroom teacher was cool. (She wasn’t always, but she once listened to a confiscated demo of Sunset Curve and was now one of their biggest supporters on the faculty. He honestly wouldn’t know what he would do without Ms. Harrison.)</p><p>As he hurried through the halls in hopes of getting there before Ms. Harrison submitted attendance for homeroom (though he knew Reggie would try and stall which was frankly a scarier prospect than getting another tardy on his record), he noticed an abandoned CD in the hallway. Without thinking too much about it, he simply leaned down and picked it up as he continued on his way through the halls.</p><p>It was still in his hand when he snuck into his desk in the back of Ms. Harrison’s room. Reggie was asking Ms. Harrison something at her desk. By the looks of it, Reggie might have pulled out ‘Home is Where My Horse Is’ in an effort to distract from Luke’s absence. Ms. Harrison seemed a bit confused but, unwilling to do anything that might stall a student’s creativity, went along with it. </p><p>Taking this moment to look at the CD he found in the hallway, he noticed it was free of any cover art like CDs that were mass-produced for particular albums. Instead, it only had the basic silver cover with <em>JM_backup/Wake Up.mp3</em> written in neat purple Sharpie. Based on such vague clues, Luke figured he would have to listen to the CD in hopes of finding the rightful owner.</p><p>Sliding it into his bag until he could sneak away to a player, Luke settled himself into his desk for Announcements and other homeroom things. After the pledge had been said, Ms. Harrison finally sent the attendance (with a teasing smile to Luke telling him she knew he came in late). After which, seeing as it was only homeroom, Ms. Harrison left them to their own devices.</p><p>Thankful that Ms. Harrison taught music, Luke made his way to the CD players and selected a Discman from those available for student use. After checking out the Discman with Ms. Harrison (She technically was only supposed to do that for the music students, but even the principal agreed Luke deserved a spot.), Luke sat down at his desk, set the CD to load, and pulled out his homework for the next class period.</p><p>He fully intended to get some work done when the most marvelous vocals called to him through his headphones. Whoever was singing was an angel and had the voice to match. And those keys? They were beyond awesome. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the whole song was the feeling beneath both the piano and the vocals: it was like whoever was singing was singing directly at him. It was an instant connection.</p><p>In his more philosophical moments, Luke would wax poetic about the nature of music and how it could connect people across any distance. Alex and Reggie would usually humor him for about twenty minutes before totally tuning him out (so he could rant properly) or teasingly change the subject, but, for some reason, Luke knew that this girl would get it. He just had to find out who she was.</p><p>When the song stopped, Luke immediately replayed the song, listening more analytically to the song’s different parts in hopes of something identifiable. He thought the voice sounded familiar but couldn’t place it.</p><p>A sudden nudge on his shoulder shocked him out of his song analysis and made him jump almost a foot high. Looking around, Luke quickly spotted Reggie wearing an amused grin with his hands held up in surrender. </p><p>“Whoa, man,” Reggie chuckled. “Didn’t mean to scare ya. What’re you listening to?” Reggie quickly slid into the desk in front of Luke which had been vacated sometime between the first time Luke listened to the CD of Mystery and now. Luke simply handed Reggie the right earbud and let Reggie hear for himself. After listening for only thirty seconds, Luke knew he had Reggie hooked. “Dude, who’s the one singing?” Reggie asked with an amazed look on his face.</p><p>“That’s what I’m hoping to glean from the song. The CD the song came with didn’t have much in way of names or anything,” Luke replied while he wrote down a line of music in the margins of his math homework. “I was actually gonna ask if you knew who it was.”</p><p>“Nah, man. I have Alex next period. I can take the CD to him?” suggested Reggie, but Luke was having none of it.</p><p>Luke took back his headphone and put it back in his ear. “I’d rather hang onto it.” Luke was glad he couldn’t hear Reggie’s teasing remark (the look was enough), but Reggie blissfully let him dissect the song until the next bell rang.</p><p>Reluctantly, Luke packed away the CD and the Discman in his bag and trudged his way off to his next class: Government. Fortunately (for Luke, not for democracy), Government was taught by a football coach, and they were in the middle of their season, so Luke was free to obsess over the girl in the CD for the next fifty minutes. And so he did. </p><p>For the next period, Luke played the same song over and over and over again, trying to scrape enough information out of the music to find its owner with no luck. He repeated this in his second-period English class with no success. When the next bell rang to signal third period, he was irritated and confused, wondering if he would ever crack the code and where the time went.</p><p>Thankfully, third period was Algebra with his boys. While he didn’t expect a repeat of first and second period where he got to listen to the voice of an angel sing about moving past her pain, he could at least fill them in on what he had figured out: nothing.</p><p>Upon walking into the math class, he saw that his boys had already taken up one of the desks in the back. He made his way over with a smile when Reggie waved his arms wildly back and forth while Alex tried to sink out of existence at the attention-grabbing display.</p><p>“What’s up boys?” Luke asked happily while he situated himself between Alex and Reggie. </p><p>“Nothing on our end,” Reggie supplied sunnily while he doodled on his notebook. “You?”</p><p>“Yeah, Luke,” started Alex, now taking a somewhat nonchalant pose in his chair. “Anything new with you?” Alex’s tone was full of teasing and taunting. It made Luke want to take him down a peg, and his opportunity had just walked in the door.</p><p>“Hey Willie,” Luke called out to the skater who just walked through the door. Immediately, Alex righted himself and started rifling through his bag for one of the fidget toys he kept for during class as the easy-going focus of Alex’s first real crush walked up to their table to say hi.</p><p>“Hey Luke-man, Reggie, Alex. What’s up?” If Willie was talking more to Alex than Luke or Reggie, nobody mentioned it at the moment (though the looks exchanged between Reggie and Luke said that there would be words as soon as it was safe).</p><p>“Nothing much man, you?” asked Luke, mostly so Alex was spared from making small-talk for the moment. The drummer was still trying to find the particular fidget toy he wanted.</p><p>“Just hanging in there, like the rest. Whatcha looking for Hotdog?” Willie asked. This time Luke couldn’t save him, and Alex knew it. Luke and Reggie held their breath, hoping their friend wouldn’t flounder too much.</p><p>“I-I-I was just looking for … a fidget … toy,” Alex managed to mumble out. If the blush was anything to go by, Alex was extremely embarrassed to have to admit he needed a fidget toy at all, though Luke thought it had more to do with Willie now knowing Alex used them. (Alex’s parents were the classic Midwestern type, with very strict ideas about how their boy should be, so Luke and Reggie had to beg Alex to keep at least a couple on him in addition to his sticks. Alex still had issues with others knowing about it.)</p><p>“One sec,” Willie proudly said before quickly ruffling through his own bag, only to produce a small white and pink cube. “I, uh, got this for you awhile ago. It’s a fidget cube,” Willie shyly admitted.</p><p>Alex looked at the small device in Willie’s hand with awe. “Thanks, man,” Alex said as he gently took the toy from Willie like it was like to break apart if Alex breathed wrong.</p><p>“Don’t mention it. Hope it helps!” And with that, Willie was off to find a seat over off to the side while Alex smiled dreamily after.</p><p>“Don’t think you’re off the hook for the CD or that I won’t get you back,” whispered Alex darkly to Luke while the teacher walked in and started class.</p><p>Luke only smiled and sat back as the lesson got going.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Carrie I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Despite whatever Flynn thought, Carrie really wanted to be a good friend, ...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Despite whatever Flynn thought, Carrie really wanted to be a good friend, so when she found Julie frantically digging through her bag on the floor of their third-period science class, she tried to calm down her friend.</p>
<p>“Julie, what’s wrong? What’s going on?” Carrie whispered while she knelt down and started to pick up random items Julie had thrown to the side in her desperate search attempt.</p>
<p>“I can’t find it,” Julie muttered as she nearly slammed down her pencil bag, her fearful gaze still on her backpack.</p>
<p>“Find what?” Carrie asked as she gently grabbed Julie’s wrists to stop her search.</p>
<p>“My backup,” Julie admitted in a small voice, tears building up in her eyes. It took a moment for Carrie, but as soon as she did, she knew exactly what was wrong. Ever since Julie’s mother had died, she had become an increasingly private person, and <em>Wake Up</em> was the epitome of a private moment for Julie.</p>
<p>Carrie pulled Julie into a hug, rubbing her hand up and down Julie’s back. “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Carrie promised. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. You already turned in the original to Ms. Harrison, and you didn’t even put your name on it.” </p>
<p>“But what if-” Julie sniffled into Carrie’s hair, but Carrie wasn’t having any of it.</p>
<p>“No matter what happens, I don’t see what we could do about it now, so why don’t we just meet Flynn in the cafeteria for lunch?” Carrie interrupted. She pulled back a little bit and gave Julie a small encouraging smile while pulling out a small tissue from her purse to wipe away the few tears that had escaped Julie’s eyes.</p>
<p>Julie calmed down and nodded with her own smile, but Carrie wasn’t convinced. As the two girls gathered Julie’s wayward supplies, Carrie tried to think of ways to make Julie forget about the missing CD, but soon, Julie’s stuff was put away in her backpack, and Carrie had to put her thoughts on hold so they could go to lunch.</p>
<p>Flynn was already at the table, waiting to tuck in when Julie and Carrie arrived. “Hey, disappointment,” she said to Julie while pointedly ignoring Carrie. (Carrie pretended it didn’t hurt while storing the pain away for later when she needed something to give her that edge in performance.)</p>
<p>“Hey, underachiever,” Julie gave half-heartedly, apparently tired from her explosion of nervous energy.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong, Jules?” asked Flynn, quickly picking up on Julie’s mood and sending accusing glances to Carrie.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” Julie insisted while she put her stuff down. Neither Carrie nor Flynn missed the way Julie wouldn’t look them in the eyes. “I’m going to get lunch.” And with that, Julie turned made off for the lunch lines on the other side of the cafeteria before anyone could say anything else.</p>
<p>“What did you do?” demanded Flynn in a venomous tone. The feisty fashionista glared viciously at Carrie, posed to strike at the faintest sign of trouble.</p>
<p>Instead of rising to the bate, Carrie simply sat down at the table and pulled out her lunch from home. “I didn’t do anything,” Carrie replied calmly. “Julie’s backup CD is missing.”</p>
<p>“Backup of what?” asked a new voice. Forcing a smile on her face, she turned to find her boyfriend, Nick, standing beside their table. </p>
<p>“Hey babe,” Carrie pretended to gush. Nick smiled a bit awkwardly in response before sitting down somewhat reluctantly. </p>
<p>Their relationship had been … fine recently which a bit of a problem for a few reasons. First, while she still very much liked Nick, she was becoming bored with the relationship. This was in part due to the fact that Nick seemed to have stopped making the effort and Carrie let him. Second, Carrie was pretty sure Nick’s feelings for her were sizzling out at best which is probably why Nick stopped making the effort. And last, but most importantly, Carrie was pretty sure Nick was into Julie. </p>
<p>It was the reason Carrie had tried to stop being friends with Julie and Flynn in the first place, hoping with Julie out of the picture, Nick would turn his attention her way, but no such luck. Eventually, Carrie had not seen enough progress with Nick to keep sacrificing her relationship with Julie, so she apologized and was slowly rebuilding that lost trust. She still saw Nick stealing looks at Julie every now and then.</p>
<p>A quiet fell over the table, and Carrie saw Flynn calm down some. She didn’t know if that was from the arrival of Nick making Flynn uncomfortable with confrontation or if Flynn saw the same thing Carrie did. Either way, Carrie decided to not push her luck by bothering her. Flynn (she hoped) would warm back up to her in time.</p>
<p>Soon, Julie came back, and the usual lunchtime talk resumed around the group’s central figure. Carrie tried to get Nick’s attention a couple of times, only for him to turn to Julie, and Julie, the blissfully blind girl she was, would kindly respond with no clue as to what she was doing. When Flynn shot her an uncomfortable look after Carrie’s last attempt (Carrie refused to call it pity.), Carrie faked having to leave for some Dirty Candy business. Julie was the only one to really say bye.</p>
<p>As she walked away, she checked the time on her phone to see that she still had thirty minutes left before her next class. She decided to swing by the office and see if anyone had left Julie’s CD in the Lost-and-Found.</p>
<p>She didn’t mean to, but while she was shifting through lost jackets and misplaced sunglasses, she started to silently cry. She didn’t even notice until someone placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you okay?”</p>
<p>Turning around, she stared at the mystery guy who had checked up on her. He looked vaguely familiar, wearing mostly black with only a red and black plaid shirt tied around his hips and some sort of beaded necklace for color. While Carrie might have expected superficial concern or selfish discomfort or even mock kindness from others in this situation, the teen before her seemed genuinely interested in making sure she was okay.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why she said, “Not really, I’m pretty sure my boyfriend likes my best friend.” As soon as she said it, she wanted to grab the words out of the air and slam them back down her throat. She wasn’t ready to face facts, and she certainly didn’t want to face facts in the front office with a total stranger. Now, she had to deal with a total stranger’s mockery while trying to make sure he didn’t try to spread the word.</p>
<p>“Ouch, that sucks,” the stranger said. He took a look around, stepped closer, and innocently whispered, “Do you want to go somewhere a bit more private to talk about it?”</p>
<p>Carrie only stepped back and stared at him with open shock and suspicion. “We don’t even know each other,” she ground out, quickly getting ready to go on the defense if it came to that.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m Reggie,” he said with a smile and offered a hand to shake. Carrie stared for another second or two before taking the handshake.</p>
<p>“Carrie,” she supplied curtly, still on the lookout for any signs of ulterior motives.</p>
<p>“Nice to meet you, Carrie,” Reggie said happily. Just then, the bell rang for her next class, and Carrie started to pull back to leave. “Wait! Here!” Reggie quickly pulled out a marker and small piece of paper from his jeans and scrolled his number on the paper. “In case you ever want to talk to someone about that stupid boyfriend of yours.” He then walked past her, giving her a wave goodbye as he made his way to wherever he was going.</p>
<p>Carrie stared after him for only a minute before shaking her head, shoving the number in her purse, and stalking to her history class. She made it to her desk just in time for the bell to ring. Pulling out the necessary materials for class, the paper with Reggie’s number floated out and onto her desk. Snatching the paper up, she wondered what she would do with it.</p>
<p>Thinking back to how kind he was about her situation, Carrie figured she had nothing to lose by texting Reggie. Plus, she really did need to figure out what to do about Nick.</p>

<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>1:04pm<br/>This is Carrie</code><br/></dd></div><p>She sent the text before wincing. He probably didn’t remember her name, all things considered. She pondered how to elaborate on her situation when she got a text back.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>1:05pm<br/>Hey Carrie! This is Reggie! :)</code>
  <br/>
</dd>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>1:05pm<br/>Btw, Idk what ur bf’s deal is, but u deserve 2 b with some1 who would treasure u.</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Normally, she would be annoyed and pissed at someone who wrote something so easily construed as flirting, but she didn’t get the flirting vibe from Reggie. He seemed to be a genuinely nice guy who just wanted to help her.</p>

<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>1:06pm<br/>Thnkx. U have no idea how much i needed to hear that</code><br/></dd></div>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>1:07pm</code>
  <br/>
  <code>sure! Sorry ur having a bad day :(</code>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Carrie smiled and slipped her phone back into her purse and turned to the front, ready to take notes on whatever lecture the teacher gave that day. For the rest of the day, Carrie would smile whenever she thought about Reggie and how nice he was for checking on her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it all, but she had a really good feeling about it, and that was enough to keep texting him when she got the chance.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Alex I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex was a very anxious person. He had no chill. He overthought everything and anything. But no matter how much thought he gave it, he couldn’t figure out what Willie meant by <em>‘I, uh, got this for you awhile ago.’</em> It had bothered him all through lunch when he finally came down from his ‘Willie-gave-him-a-present’ cloud nine after third period math. Now, he was in fourth period English with the closest thing to a friend he had was his desk partner Julie (she was cool though they hadn’t really ever talked beyond coursework), having to pretend he wasn’t trying to dissect the meaning behind everything Willie had done in third period.</p><p>On one hand, it could mean that, miracle of miracles, Willie actually likes him back. Or it could mean that Willie was just a really observant person with nothing but friendly feelings for Alex. Or it could mean that Alex was just overtly anxious and this was Willie’s way of making fun of him. And what did <em>‘awhile ago’</em> mean? A couple of day s ago? A week? Three months?</p><p>The more Alex thought about it, the more he would use his new fidget cube, the more he would think about it. It was a vicious cycle. Eventually, he raised his hand and got permission to go outside the classroom. He didn’t really know how he got permission or what for, only leaving immediately after getting it. Taking several deep breaths, Alex counted his way through <em>‘Now or Never,’</em> pretending to play the drums for a moment to calm down. When he was calm enough, he started towards the nearest restroom to splash water on his face.</p><p>As he rounded the corner, he walked directly into Willie.</p><p>Alex was horrified though, in true Willie-fashion, the skater simply tilted his head back, laughed, and said, “Finally got me back, huh Hotdog?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah,” Alex muttered while getting up and brushing himself off. Once righted, Alex lent down and offered to help Willie up. Willie smiled brightly at him as Alex hulled him up. “You’re not hurt, are you?” Alex worried.</p><p>“No way man, I took too many falls learning how to board to get hurt from something like that,” Willie provided. Willie shoved his hands in his pockets and took a long dramatic look up and down the empty hallways. “So, what are you doing?” he asked mischievously.</p><p>“Uh … well … you see-” Alex stumbled as he tried to find a better reason than <em>‘I had to leave class because that fidget cube you gave me? I’ve been thinking about it and why you chose to give it to me and if there was a way to find out when you bought it, and I almost had a panic attack in my English class.’</em></p><p>“Why, Alexander,” Willie teased, “are you … <em>playing hooky?</em>” Willie wore a faux shocked expression complete with a mocking hand clutching fake pearls.</p><p>“Uh, no,” Alex offered weakly, and he internally facepalmed at how pathetic he must have sounded. Reaching up, Alex tried to allieve some of the awkwardness he felt by rubbing the back of his neck.</p><p>“Oh,” Willie said, nodding a bit sagely. Leaning up against the wall, Willie took another glance around before asking mischievously, “Do you want to?”</p><p>Alex really wanted to. Willie was standing there, grinning at him, asking him to spend time together. But Alex was, as established, a very anxious person, and very anxious people do <em>not</em> play hooky with their gay crush when their parents could find out. (Not that Alex’s parents seemed to care anymore since he came out.)</p><p>“I want to,” he said honestly. Averting his eyes down and stuffing his hand in his pockets, Alex started to shift his weight around nervously. “I swear I do, but …”</p><p>“Hey,” Willie said, placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder, causing Alex to stop moving. “It’s fine, really, another time.” Willie paused to warmly smile up at him. “I’ll see you around, Alex.” And with a solid pat on the arm, Willie was off down the hallway. Alex stays still for another moment before just returning to class, deciding he had been gone long enough.</p><p>When Alex got back, the lesson was mostly over, and his classmates were doing whatever assignment they had been given. On his book, a blue sticky-note with Julie’s loopy and serene handwriting explained the assignment. He gave her a grateful smile, and she flicked her wrist as if to say <em>‘No biggie.’</em> For the rest of the period, Alex worked on the assignment (write an eight-line poem following the example of Emily Dickinson) and even managed to turn it in before the bell rang. </p><p>Quickly gathering his stuff and taking off down the hall, Alex stepped into his fifth period Government class. Thankfully, he had this class with Reggie, so he immediately sat down at their desk in the corner and waited eagerly for his friend to arrive and help talk him through the newest Willie encounter. </p><p>When Reggie came in, he was texting someone, and Alex assumed there had been some crisis on Luke’s side. (Alex, having been filled on mysterious CD singer, was willing to bet that Luke had come up with some plan to find her that was doomed to fail.) “Whatever it is that you and Luke are planning, don’t do it. It won’t work, and I’ll have to get you two out of trouble, <em>again</em>.”</p><p>“It’s not Luke. It’s my new friend,” Reggie replied quickly before returning to his phone with urgency.</p><p>“Okay,” Alex drawled. While it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that Reggie made a new friend, Alex had never seen Reggie so determined about anything (outside of, perhaps, his continued attempts to convince Luke to try Country). Staring for a few moments, Alex nudged Reggie with his shoulder.</p><p>“What?” Reggie asked distractedly. He was still typing away at his phone, seemingly constantly messaging this new friend of his.</p><p>“I kind of want to talk to you? Especially since we don’t have anything to do this period?” Alex ventured, a little annoyed his friend was paying so little attention. It really wasn’t like Reggie. Even Luke could be persuaded to put music down and talk about something if it was really serious.</p><p>“Oh, sorry, just let me … send this … last … text,” Reggie said before finally putting the phone away in his back pocket. “Sorry, she’s just been having a tough time of it lately. She really needs someone to talk to.” As if that explained everything.</p><p>Alex looked at Reggie like he grew a second head. “Who … were … you … texting?” he asked slowly. By nature of their friendship, Alex knew everyone Reggie knew with very few (if any) exceptions. For Reggie not to name the person he was so focused on texting was a little weird. (In fact, Alex had to have the <em>‘stop-telling-us-everything-your-mom-sends-you’</em> conversation a few different times after a few too many times of tmi.)</p><p>“Oh! You know, I don’t think they would want you to know about that,” Reggie said simply. Reggie tilted his head in a confused manner. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to talk about? Is it Willie again?” Reggie asked, sitting back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head.</p><p>“That’s not … okay,” Alex said, quickly deciding he didn’t care enough about texts to get a straight answer out of Reggie. “So I was in fourth …” Alex explained everything that happened to Reggie, from the near-panic attack to running into Willie to taking a raincheck on ‘playing hooky’ with Willie. (A font of practical knowledge, Reggie was not, but he had a naturally kind and considerate soul with a talent for reading people that could be frightening when applied to other people’s lives.) “So?” Alex ended.</p><p>“So?” Reggie teasingly questioned. When Alex made to push him, Reggie blocked and laughed at him. “Alex, you need to relax,” Reggie insisted. “It really sounds like Willie likes you.” Just then, Reggie’s phone buzzed quite audibly, and Reggie tried to look innocent.</p><p>Alex just sighed. “Go ahead,” he groaned before placing his head on the table in front of him. Resigned to have his friend be distracted by whoever it was he was texting so fervently, Alex took this time to nap until the bell rang. Hopefully, Gym would be better though Alex doubted it (since he shared that class with Willie of all people).</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Flynn I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sitting in chemistry next to Carrie, Flynn felt a bit unnerved. For whatever reason, the other girl just plopped down next to Flynn during fifth period without a word, smiling at her phone and occasionally sending a text to whoever. (She had been doing that a lot over the past couple of days.) It was weird. Thankfully, Carrie mostly kept to herself during class (like most times when Julie wasn’t there to play referee).</p><p>Every now and then, Flynn would sneak looks at Carrie and think about their past friendship. If Flynn was honest, she would admit she missed Carrie and their friendship, but Flynn also remembered what it was like to be hurt by Carrie, leaving Flynn in this weird limbo of wanting to be friends and being hurt by Carrie’s dismissal. Flynn wanted to talk about it. Hell, Flynn wanted to have a reality show level screaming match in fancy dresses while their very own Andy (AKA, Julie) tried to keep them on task. Really, Flynn wanted answers. So many questions swirled in Flynn’s head as to what happened through the last couple of days at lunch started to paint a picture. </p><p>Watching Nick pay more attention to Julie while Carrie tried near pointlessly to gain his attention was an awkward hell of personal proportions that, nonetheless, put some things into perspective for Flynn. Frankly, she should’ve noticed earlier that Nick was into Julie, but c’est la vie. Now, it was this whole mess of confusing emotions and stupid teen drama that made Flynn look at dumb teen rom-coms differently. (So would you if your life suddenly become one.) Looking back, she wondered where they went wrong and how this mess could have been avoided. </p><p>One thing for sure, she was going to make sure Julie was over her crush on Nick. No matter what her feelings about Carrie, Julie had been happier since <strike>the demon</strike> Carrie rejoined them. (So what Flynn was still coaching herself on not calling Carrie a demon?) If Julie’s feelings for Nick ruined their relationship, Flynn didn’t know how Julie would react, and she <em>just started playing</em> again. (Plus, Flynn found it to be incredibly sus that Nick would stare at Julie while in a relationship with Carrie. It doesn't bode well for future relationships.)</p><p>The main dilemma now was this: how would Flynn confront Carrie about all this? Looking around to make sure the teacher wasn’t looking (He had given them all busy-work and was now on his computer probably stalking his ex-wife and her new boyfriend on Facebook. He hadn’t taken the divorce all that well.), Flynn pulled out her phone and started to text Carrie.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:09pm<br/>We need to talk about Nick</code><br/></dd></div><p>Flynn sent off the text and put her phone down, trying not to think too much about it. Part of her expected Carrie to deny it, to stand up and screech at her the second she read Flynn’s text. Instead, Carrie simply sighed. A moment later, Flynn’s phone vibrated. A text message from Carrie.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>2:10pm<br/>I know. Im working on it</code>
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<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:10pm</code><br/>And yes, its why i was such a b!tch earlier<br/></dd><p>Flynn wanted to scream and pull her hair out. She was still so angry at Carrie, but now she was also angry at Nick and Julie and herself. She hated that something so stupid was allowed to wreck so much of her life. Instead of screaming, Flynn quietly texted Carrie an OK emoji. Their friendship wasn’t completely healed, but it was a step in the right direction.</p><p>“Flynn?” Carrie asked, locking her phone though she kept it in her hand. “Do you think Julie would mind if I invited a few guys to lunch tomorrow? I want to show a new friend of mine something.” It was an innocent enough question, but Flynn wasn’t fooled. It <em>had</em> be something to do with Nick.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Flynn eventually answered. “Let’s ask her in Music.” Flynn traded smiles with Carrie, and they spent the rest of the period in companionable silence, only breaking that silence to ask each other questions about assignments every now and then. At one point, Flynn took out her earphones and offered one to Carrie, and they listened to one of Flynn’s artfully curated playlists as time rolled by.</p><p>When the bell rang, the girls parted ways, Carrie off to her sixth-period Dance class, and Flynn went to her sixth-period Media class. Media was alright as far as Flynn was concerned. It was mostly just a class where the teacher occasionally lectured on different techniques used in the media industry and sometimes gave assignments, but, for the most part, students were given a lot of free-range to mess around and goof off. </p><p>This would be cool if she had any friends in the class, but the closest she had was Luke who sat by her. They got along most of the time (barring any discussion about music ever) because they had mostly the same vibe, but they weren’t what Flynn would call friends exactly. They probably only hung out in the class because they didn’t really have anyone else. </p><p>Settling down in her seat, Flynn pulled out some homework from one of her other classes and her headphones again, setting up for a period spent studying for a math test next week. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luke slide into his desk beside her, pull out one of the school’s Discmans, and hit play. Over the course of the period, whenever she looked up, Flynn would see Luke shaking his leg and starring at the Discman in concentration, occasionally making faces at the Discman like he was getting frustrated. It was almost funny.</p><p>Finally, Media ended, and Flynn walked briskly to Music. Once there, she pointedly sat down between Nick and Julie, shooting the former a quick glare while the latter sent her a questioning look.</p><p>“Hey Flynn, that’s Carrie’s spot,” Julie pointed out in confusion. Sure enough, Carrie’s purse was settled under the chair.</p><p>“It’s okay,” Carrie swooped in. With a smile, she grabbed her purse and placed it under the chair on the other side of Julie. “I’ll just sit here for today.” If Flynn’s eyes didn’t trick her, Carrie had sent Flynn a grateful smile which she returned full-heartedly.</p><p>“Julie,” Flynn spoke up, “before I forget, Carrie and I were wondering if you would mind if we invited a few people to eat lunch with us tomorrow.” Carrie sent Flynn a surprised look though nothing topped the look Julie sent her way.</p><p>“Uh, sure,” Julie said. When Julie looked more excited than nervous about the prospect of new lunchmates, Flynn felt like could have flown through the sky with only her arms to hold her up. “Who are they?” Julie asked, looking between her two friends.</p><p>“Just a new friend of mine and his two bandmates,” Carrie supplied. Sitting down in her chair like it a throne. “You’ll like him. He’s super sweet,” Carrie gushed about her new friend though Flynn was already detecting what could turn out to be a crush. Sneaking a peek at Nick, Flynn fought to control her anger. Nick was looking openly and directly at Julie, seemingly admiring how her hair fell over her shoulders or something. At the last moment, he caught Flynn’s glare and turned his attention to the front of the classroom. Turning her attention back to Carrie, Flynn found to be neither surprised nor angry but rather resigned.</p><p>Quickly, Flynn opened her mouth and spat out the first thing to come to mind. “Why don’t we sleepover this weekend so you can tell us all about him?” She proposed. Both girls looked shocked for a moment, but Julie recovered soon enough.</p><p>“Good idea! I’ll ask my dad if we can do it at my place!” Julie offered, and before Carrie could say anything (she was still starring at Flynn in shock to which Flynn just winked), Julie shot off a text to her dad. “We should know by the end of school.”</p><p>“Great! And just in time for class,” Flynn said as she spotted Ms. Harrison get up from her desk and make her way to the front of the class. For the rest of school, Flynn watched different classmates (Nick included) get up and perform. Once Nick was done, Flynn gave a couple of polite handclaps.</p><p>“Thank you to all who performed today,” Ms. Harrison praised, her gaze set on Julie which caused the girl to smile softly. “For the rest of the period, feel free to work on whatever you’d like,” Ms. Harrison announced as she went back to her desk. The room of teenagers immediately began to buzz with energy as some people pulled out their instruments to work on their next piece or simply turned to the nearest person to talk or any other activity they could conceivable do in a music room.</p><p>“You did really well Nick,” Julie complimented innocently. Nick smiled a bit goofily, and Flynn wanted to rip the stupid athlete a new one.</p><p>“Thanks Molina,” Nick returned. Flynn found herself internally dissecting Nick’s behavior and finding some fault in it. </p><p>“You deserve it,” Carrie added. While Julie and Nick seemed unaware of the lack of affection in her words, it struck Flynn full force like a runaway eighteen-wheeler, and it hurt.</p><p>“Did your dad text back?” Flynn changed the topic. While Nick looked a little annoyed and Julie looked a little bewildered, Carrie looked like she was about to laugh at Flynn’s antics.</p><p>“Uh, let me check,” said Julie as she dug into her bag to pull out her phone. All at once, Julie’s face lit up. “He said yes!”</p><p>“Sweet!” Flynn celebrated, very happy that she had successfully changed the topic.</p><p>The bell rang, signaling the end of the day, and the three girls shared a smile. “And right on time!” Carrie joked as they gathered their things and headed for her car.</p><p>Nick, of course, waved them off.</p><p>Flynn didn’t wave back.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Reggie I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After school was for band practice.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you guys like this update! Please comment with your opinion. I do so love the feedback.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After school was for band practice. In theory, this was fine, but the reality was far harsher. The Pattersons (while not openly hostile to the band) were not the most supportive when it came to the band. Due to the Pattersons’ rules on practicing, the most they were allowed to use the garage was twice a week and once on the weekends. Reggie would have suggested Alex’s house, but his parents had been weird since Alex came out, and Reggie was worried Luke was going to lose it at some point and deck Alex’s dad. This left the music room at school. Ms. Harrison was usually able to give it to them on the days Emily denied them the garage so long as they were out by half-past seven every night. </p><p>On the rare occurrence that they couldn’t find <em>anywhere</em> to practice (and Alex was able to talk Luke out of busking), the three boys would just hang out at one of their houses, maybe write some music or talk about this or that gig or just whatever had happened at school that day, but not today. That Friday was different.</p><p>Alex had been having a super stressful day (for which Reggie regretted the part he played in it, but how was he supposed to know that Alex would freak over Reggie eating hotdogs for lunch, honestly it was one time) and needed to go home and rest, and Luke was still obsessed with CD Cinderella as Alex had dubbed her at lunch. (Luke didn’t like the name, but Reggie thought it was cool.) So Reggie, with nowhere else to go, went home. </p><p>Walking into his house, Reggie couldn’t help but scan around for signs of anyone else despite it being a bit too early for his parents to be home and neither’s car was in the driveway yet. Once the coast was clear, Reggie grabbed a quick sandwich from the kitchen, made his way up to his room, and shut the door. Alone in his room, Reggie sighed and took a look around. The bed was still unmade from this morning, and there was a shirt on the ground from this morning, but the rest of his room was put away, speaking to how little time he spent at home. </p><p>With nothing else to do, Reggie went ahead and cleaned up a little bit before grabbing his bass and working on whatever came to mind, only occasionally pausing to see if Carrie had texted him. He could (and regularly did) spend hours this way. Soon enough, he heard the front door open and slam close, marking the arrival of his mother. Time passed, the front door opened and closed again, and his father was home from work. A quick look at the clock by the bed told him it was about ten til seven.</p><p>Reggie kept playing his bass, only putting headphones on when he heard the beginning of the screaming. He wanted to stay up there all night to avoid the fighting, but Reggie was a teenaged boy who had to skip lunch because neither of his parents had bothered to put more money in his lunch account (despite numerous emails from the school and a note Reggie left on the pantry door), so Reggie waited until they sounded like they were away from the kitchen and then made his move. </p><p>As Reggie raided the kitchen, he tried to be aware of where his parents were in the house. It wasn’t that Reggie was afraid of them; it was just that Reggie was tired of the fighting, and being around his parents was the same thing as waiting for a fight to happen. </p><p>Sometimes, when his parents had managed to corner him and forced him to listen to them fighting in attempts to have him be their referee, Reggie hoped they would just get a divorce. He used to feel bad about those thoughts, but he had changed his mind about that as of late (especially as the fights seemed to get more and more intense).</p><p>Suddenly, his mother stomped into the kitchen and glared at him. “What are you doing home so early?” she demanded in a suspicious huff.</p><p>His father came into the kitchen himself. “Leave the boy alone,” he growled, though Reggie was sure it had more to do with fighting his mother than protecting him.</p><p><em>“I was just asking why our son was home so early!"</em> she yelled in response, already bucking for another fight. Reggie then quickly grabbed his food and walk out the nearest door before he had to watch his parents try their hardest to tear each other apart.</p><p>Unfortunately for him, the nearest door happened to be the door to the backyard. Upon realizing his mistake, Reggie groaned and turned around to see if he had closed the door. He had. This wouldn’t be a problem except that particular door had an awful habit of locking when closing. Reggie’s mother had asked his father to fix it, and well … </p><p>Doing a quick mental inventory of his house, Reggie knew there was no way to get back into the house unless his parents opened the door for him, and that was unlikely once they were in the throes of battle. He was locked out for the night.</p><p>He thought about walking to Alex’s or Luke’s, but Luke lived too far to walk, and Alex’s house was out because Alex was out. His best bet was the old studio his neighbors had. He used to hear the best music come out of there, but lately, it was deathly quiet, so (hopefully) nobody would notice a seventeen-year-old sneaking into the place to spend the night. </p><p>A new plan of action decided, Reggie took his overshirt and made it into a bag to hold his food, tying it around his waist. Then, he quietly walked over to the fence dividing the properties, checked that no one was watching, and jumped the fence as quietly as possible. Once he stuck the landing, Reggie snuck along the fence to the studio, making sure to move with as little noise as possible. The studio was mercifully unlocked, and Reggie quickly opened the door, snuck in, and then closed the door behind him.</p><p>Now safely inside the studio, Reggie took the chance to look around as best he could in the dark. The studio was cool and relaxed if a bit unused. Looks like Reggie was right to assume no one would come in here. To his right, he found what he was looking for: a couch. It was a nice worn black leather couch with throw pillows and a blanket over the back. It would do nicely for the night, and maybe Reggie (while not mentioning the fact he had crashed illegally here) could talk to the owners tomorrow about renting the space. (Where they would get the money to rent the space for practice, Reggie didn’t know, but it’s the thought that counts?)</p><p>Sitting down on the couch, Reggie began to eat in silence. He only managed to get a bag of chips, some grapes, and some kind of cookie before he walked out of the house, but better that than nothing.</p><p>Suddenly, the doors were pulled open, and, before he could jump up to run away, a man reached into the studio and hit the lights. (Reggie noted that the place looked better in the light.) “Who are you?” the man asked calmly but sternly. His tone brokered no argument or lies, clearly angry but not beyond reason. (Reggie vaguely wondered why his parents could be more like that.)</p><p>“I-I I’m Reggie, sir, from the house next door,” Reggie said, and he couldn’t help but wince internally at how scared he sounded. It’s not like the guy was holding a shotgun or had called the police. “I got locked out of my house.”</p><p>“And your parents?” the man asked. Reggie felt his throat close up, and he looked down to avoid the pity he worried he would find. (Reggie was kind of sick of being known as the kid with the ‘troubled homelife.’)</p><p>“They’re … uh … busy,” Reggie lied, still not looking up.</p><p>“Figures,” the man said. At this point, Reggie fully expected him to try and march him to his door, have tense words with his parents, and then glare at him every time he saw Reggie in the neighborhood. Instead, the man sighed and took a seat next to him on the couch. “You know, we still have some pizza inside if you haven’t had dinner. If you want, you can come in and eat while I get the pullout ready for the night,” the man offered. “I’m Ray Molina, by the way. Nice to meet you, Reggie.”</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Carrie II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sitting down at Julie’s dinner table across from the guy she had spent half of the school day texting felt weird.</p>
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    <p>Sitting down at Julie’s dinner table across from the guy she had spent the past week texting (and possibly emotionally cheating with) felt weird. Especially since he didn’t react to her at all since walking in with Julie’s dad (not that she wanted him to, but still). He didn’t look at all like he did most of the time. Most of the time, he looked happy and warm, but, sitting at the table, Carrie couldn’t help but notice how small and worn he looked. </p><p>“Now guys,” Mr. Molina (<em>Ray</em>, she self-corrected, <em>Ray</em>) said when he brought in Reggie and made him a plate of pizza, “it looks like we have an extra guest tonight. While I’m outside getting the pullout ready, please make him feel welcome.” It was nice to see <strike>Mr. Molina</strike> Ray hadn’t changed. He still was the give the shirt off his back kind of guy. </p><p>“Of course! He’s in good hands with us, Dad,” Julie answered, smiling brightly, and Carlos and Flynn nodded enthusiastically. Despite this, Reggie still looked like he wanted to bolt or have the earth swallow him whole. Carrie didn’t like it.</p><p>“Yeah, Ray,” Carrie spoke up, carefully making eye contact with Reggie. “He’s going to be fine with us.” Reggie gave her a small rueful smile before relaxing slightly. It wasn’t as much as she would like, but it was a start, and Carrie was nothing if not a go-getter. “So, Reggie, you want to watch a movie with us before bed?” Carrie asked sweetly. She felt Flynn give her a look, but she made sure not to look anywhere but Reggie, showing she was expecting an answer.</p><p>“I think that would be a great idea,” Ray said, placing Reggie’s plate in front of him and sending Carrie a grateful wink before heading outside to the studio to set up the pullout for Reggie.</p><p>Reggie waited for half a beat before shrugging once and saying, “Sure, what kind of movie are you guys thinking about watching?” He then turned to his pizza, tucking in.</p><p>“Disney is always a hit,” Julie offered, a happy look on her face. Carlos then jumped up and made his way to the living room.</p><p>“Can we watch Guardians of the Galaxy?” he asked excitedly. Without waiting for a response, Carlos turned on the TV and pulled up Disney+.</p><p>“I vote for Princess and the Frog,” Flynn spoke up as she followed Carlos into the living room to stop him from putting on the movie.</p><p>“I’m good with either,” Julie said from her place at the table, and Carrie smiled to herself at Julie’s people-pleasing nature.</p><p>Instead of voicing her own opinion, Carrie looked at Reggie and asked, “What do you want to watch?”</p><p>Reggie looked up from his pizza, shocked to be considered. He finished chewing the bite of pizza he had in his mouth, swallowed, and uttered uneasily, “Uh … I like … both?” </p><p>“Looks like a double feature kind of night then,” Carrie announced. “You guys figure out which movie we watch first, and Reggie and I will get some blankets.” Carrie grabbed Reggie’s arm and started tugging him towards the linen closet upstairs. Once alone, Carrie let go of Reggie and continued a bit down the hall to the closet. “Thanks, by the way, for not saying anything,” she said eventually, playing slightly with the end of her hair.</p><p>“I figured you would want to tell them your way,” Reggie replied, and Carrie shot him a grateful smile.</p><p>“You figured right,” Carrie laughed back. For a moment, they moved in silence, Reggie following Carrie down the hall. It felt like agony, so Carried added, “And thanks again for listening to my stupid boyfriend problems.” </p><p>“It’s alright. I thought you could use a friend,” Reggie chirped, and Carrie smiled. Reggie made it easy. In a way, it reminded her of the early days of dating Nick but more. She wasn’t fighting for his attention, and she wasn’t worried about saying something wrong or looking stupid. It was like she had known Reggie somehow this entire time.</p><p>Finally, they made it to the linen closet at the end of the hall. “Hold out your arms,” Carrie commanded, and Reggie obediently held out his arms as Carrie loaded him down with the extra blankets and throws. </p><p>After Carrie closed the closet door, she made to grab the top few blankets only for Reggie to jerk them out of reach. At her questioning look, Reggie simply shrugged and said, “Chivalry isn’t completely dead.”</p><p>Mockingly, Carrie popped out a hip and cocked an eyebrow. “And this is LA. You know, home of the fascist feminists and liberal leftists? Why is fair that you carry all the blankets?” she joked with a smile.</p><p>Again Reggie shrugged. “If you really want to carry something, I won’t stop you, but I got this. It’s not me saying you’re not strong enough. It’s me saying you don’t have to be.” </p><p>Carrie blinked and observed this boy in front of her. He was unlike any boy she had met before. He did things out of the kindness of his heart, seemingly without thought. He was respectful and generous and was just all around a good guy. It made Carrie’s heart flutter a bit because, truth be told, while other girls might have a thing for bad boys, Carrie had a thing for nice guys. It’s what attracted her to Nick in the first place.</p><p>“I want you and your friends to sit at our table Monday at lunch,” Carrie finally said while they were making their way to the stairs. </p><p>Reggie cocked his head. “Why?” he asked, gentle curiosity thick in his voice.</p><p>She stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked at Reggie, so he could see that see she was serious. “You’ve been giving me advice based on the situation as I saw it. I want you to see it for yourself and ask you about it before I do anything,” Carrie explained. </p><p>“How are you going to explain this all to your friends?” he asked, standing there and looking calmly back at her. Somehow, she knew what he was doing. He was making sure she really wanted to do this.</p><p>“I’ll tell them the truth. I met you early today, and you’ve been helping me with something personal. Flynn pretty much knows what’s going on with me and Nick anyway, so she won’t be a problem. Julie might ask why I didn’t ask her about it, and I might have to tell her, but I’d have to do that anyway,” Carrie thought out loud. Reggie nodded understandingly, and Carrie thought he looked like he wanted to give her some kind of physical reassurance as he stood there with her. </p><p>“Okay, just one condition,” Reggie replied, and Carrie nodded her head once to show he should name his condition. He looked down before looking straight at her. “I just want to make sure you’re not doing this to reassure yourself that this isn’t just in your head. If you think there’s a problem, there’s a problem, so I want to hear you say that you have feelings and your feelings are valid.”</p><p>It didn’t sound like much, but Carrie felt her mouth seal shut like molten metal. Closing her eyes, Carrie took a deep breath in, let it out, and very slowly and softly said, “I have feelings, and my feelings are valid.”</p><p>“Very good,” said Reggie. When Carrie opened her eyes, Reggie was smiling softly at her in pride. “Luke, Alex, and I will be there. Now, I believe we have a double feature to get to.” Reggie turned and comically pushed out his elbow as if he was going to escort her, and Carrie laughed and linked her arm through his elbow, leaning on his shoulder as they headed back to the living room. She distantly knew that this fell dangerously close to the flirting territory, but she decided it was innocent enough that she could continue with how she was carrying on. They were friends after all. </p><p>As they approached the living room, Carrie smiled as she heard Julie and Flynn laughing and singing to ‘Wake Up.’ Apparently, Carlos had gotten curious and asked for a performance of the song. Suddenly, Reggie stopped in his tracks.</p><p>Turning to him, Carrie saw the shock written into his face. Tugging on his arm gently, Carrie silently asked what was wrong. When he turned to look at her, Reggie said, “My friend, Luke, listened to the CD. He wants to meet Julie.”</p><p>Carrie had only one thought: Oh boy.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Reggie II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>As soon as Reggie heard Julie sing, he knew she was the one on the CD that Luke was kind of obsessed with.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As soon as Reggie heard Julie sing, he knew she was the one on the CD that Luke was kind of obsessed with. According to Bro Code, he knew he should text Luke immediately to let him know, however, Reggie also knew Luke and how Luke could get about music. So as he and Carrie watched the double feature, he couldn’t help but squirm ever so often until Carrie leaned against his shoulder, stilling him instantly.</p><p>To be completely honest, Reggie had seen Carrie in school before that day in the office. He always thought she was beautiful, but he never had the guts to go introduce himself and so resigned himself to appreciate her beauty from afar. That all changed when he saw her in the Lost-and-Found, crying and looking through odd lost things. He had always seen Carrie as this confident and unshakeable girl, popular because she said so, beautiful for herself, so seeing her cry was like watching a cat sniff a dog’s butt.</p><p>He had reached out and had been helping and supporting her ever since. It was nice. Being Carrie’s friend seemed as easy as breathing at times, and it was like they just clicked. Carrie didn’t seem to mind any of Reggie’s quirks, and Reggie seemed to be very good at making Carrie smile. Reggie thought he would be tortured being friendly with someone he had a distant crush on for so long, but no dice. He almost wished it would be hard. Maybe then he could get over his crush. He just felt a little guilty and dishonest giving her advice on her relationship when he liked her as more than a friend, but he was able to (partially) use the excuse that he would offer the same advice to any other girl in the same situation.</p><p>After <em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em>, Ray (as he insisted on being called) had told that Carlos had to go to bed and told the small group of teenagers that they should get some sleep after <em>Princess and the Frog</em> was over. Everyone gave their promise that they would go to sleep after the movie, and they were left alone.</p><p>Julie stood up and stretched for a second. “I’m going to take a restroom break. Be right back,” she said, walking down the hall to the guest restroom. As soon as the door to the restroom closed, Carrie turned to Flynn.</p><p>“Reggie knows who has Julie’s CD,” she said evenly and seriously. Flynn’s eyes popped open in surprise as she looked between the two of them.</p><p>“What?” Flynn muttered, too shocked to really hear what was just said.</p><p>“It’s true. A friend found it in the hallway and has been listening to it ever since, trying to figure out who it belongs to. If he finds out it’s Julie, there’s no way he doesn’t freak out over her voice and music,” Reggie explained. Carrie and he (well, mostly Carrie) had already decided it would be a better idea for them to withhold names until they could figure out what they were going to do.</p><p>“And we both know Julie’s not ready for that,” Carrie supplied, looking straight at Flynn. Reggie thought she looked very pretty and fierce when she was looking out for her friends.</p><p>“So, what’s the plan?” asked Flynn, the shock now gone though the urgency was still there. Every now and then, she would look over to the restroom Julie was in.</p><p>“I think we should give them each other’s number but not their names,” Carrie offered. “Think about it. It could let them ease into each other’s lives without causing Julie to shut down.” Flynn nodded to the plan, and Reggie could admit that it just might work.</p><p>“That might work,” Flynn said. Turning to Reggie, Flynn continued, “Reggie, can you give me your friend’s number? I’ll give it to Julie and tell her what she needs to know tomorrow.”</p><p>“Agreed,” Carrie said, and Reggie turned to her, silently asking if she really was good with the plan. “If I give it to her, she might figure out who it is, and it’s not totally fair if one knows what’s going on and the other doesn’t,” she pointed out like it was obvious. Maybe it was. Reggie was good with some things but not others.</p><p>At that, the restroom door opened, and Julie made her way to her spot in the living room. “Okay guys, ready to start the movie?” she asked cheerfully.</p><p>“Yep,” Flynn replied, returning Julie’s enthusiasm. Reggie would have never guessed that there was a plotting session just now between the three of them.</p><p>“Sure!” Carrie spoke up for both of them as she settled more into his side. He raised his arm over her shoulders on instinct, not realizing he now had his arm around her until afterward, but Carrie didn’t say anything so neither would he. Now distracted by how close Carrie and he were, Reggie didn’t have to worry about technically lying Julie. (Reggie was a notoriously bad liar. He blamed the fact he couldn’t make up good lies on the spot. Alex and Luke blamed his naturally sincere personality.)</p><p>As the movie played on, Reggie didn’t really watch too closely. He was too busy with being acutely aware of Carrie. Once again, he had this feeling of guilt associated with his friendship with Carrie. Regardless of how he felt about her and her relationship, he felt that he should at least respect the fact that she was still in a relationship. Sure, Nick sounded like a total dick, openly crushing on his girlfriend’s bestie and emotionally cheating on her, but that didn’t give Reggie permission to go after Carrie nor Carrie permission to do the same to Nick.</p><p>Suddenly, Reggie felt like throwing up. This wasn’t how he wanted this to go. Did he want to watch movies with Carrie tucked into his side? Maybe text and flirt and date? Sure. Did he want to do any of this while Carrie was in a romantic relationship? Most certainly not. It just felt wrong and hurtful. And he wasn’t even thinking about Nick (though, Reggie thought bitterly, he might not even care), but about Carrie. She deserved someone who wouldn’t put her in this weird position of kind of cheating.</p><p>“Hey, is everything okay?” Carrie whispered. Reggie turned and found Carrie starring at him with confusion and concern in her gaze.</p><p>“Yeah,” Reggie answered immediately, unwilling to voice his concerns, “I’m just going to get a glass of water. Do you need anything?” Reggie quickly disentangled himself from Carrie and moved back towards the kitchen. Carrie shook her head, hurt coming to join confusion and concern on her face, and Reggie wanted to curse his stupidity. He wanted to move forward and reassure her that it wasn’t her but him, but instead, he just made his way to the kitchen and started to quietly look for a glass.</p><p>“Try the cabinet to your left,” spoke a new voice. Turning around, Reggie saw Flynn leaning against the doorway with a smile that didn’t necessarily reach her eyes.</p><p>Reaching up for the cabinet she suggested, Reggie found the glasses he was searching for. “Thanks,” he said, taking down another for her.</p><p>“Don’t mention it,” Flynn said as she watched him walk to the sink and fill up the glasses. “What’s going on with you and Carrie?” she confronted, and Reggie realized why her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Flynn’s eyes were full of steel and relentless protective instinct for Carrie.</p><p>“I’m sure she could answer that better,” Reggie said, silently praising himself for being so thoughtful. Reggie handed Flynn a full glass of water which she took.</p><p>“Thanks,” Flynn gave, her eyes not wavering for a second. “And maybe you’re right, but I want to know what you think is going on,” Flynn returned. Her smile was gone now, and it took all warmth from her face with it as it left.</p><p>Sighing, Reggie turned off the sink and turned to face Flynn. “I’ve been helping Carrie with a personal problem lately,” he said, hoping he was vague enough that Carrie wouldn’t have to deal with any fallout from his words.</p><p>“And after the problem’s been solved?” Flynn persisted, her arms crossed as she stared down the boy in front of her.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Reggie replied honestly because he truly didn’t know. Reggie struggled against the urge to squirm under Flynn’s watchful eye. “Whatever happens is up to Carrie, but I don’t plan on hurting her.” He didn’t know if Flynn would be happy with that, but it was the truth as far as he was concerned. To stall a bit before Flynn demolished him with another question he couldn’t answer, he took a sip of water from his glass.</p><p>After a beat more of silence, Flynn nodded her head. “Okay,” she said before grabbing her glass and turning around to head for the living room. “Don’t take too long,” she gave in warning over her shoulder.</p><p>Reggie only took a moment for himself before following Flynn’s advice. Heading back to the living room, he saw that Julie had taken up in his seat by Carrie which probably wasn’t the worst idea anyway. Taking a seat on the other side of the couch, Reggie saw that the movie only had about fifteen minutes left, long enough for them to see the bad guys lose and good guys win and for everyone to live happily ever after. After the movie was over, Reggie helped the girls clean up some, and when everything was put away, he made to go to the studio.</p><p>“Wait up Reggie, I’ll walk with you,” Carrie called out. Reggie, not coming up with any good excuse, gave a bit of a strained smile. From the backdoor to the door of the studio, Carrie and Reggie walked in silent parallel lines, stopping in front of the doors to the studio. Ray had turned on the light overhanging the door, and so white light flooded the spot where they stood awkwardly facing each other. Just as Reggie was going to open the door to the studio, Carrie reached out and grabbed his arm. “What did you and Flynn talk about earlier?” she asked cryptically. Reggie couldn’t make out her expression, but she seemed a bit unsure.</p><p>“She wanted to know what was going on between us,” Reggie supplied before cringing at his use of ‘us.’</p><p>“Is that it?” Carrie asked, looking a bit more unsure than before. She had let go of his arm by now and was now messing with her nails as a way to avoid eye contact.</p><p>“She … she kind of … gave off this vibe … like she was … threatening, I guess?” Reggie eventually got out, his hand behind his neck.</p><p>“She didn’t,” Carrie groaned and put her face in her hands. “I’m sorry,” she said through her hands, “but Flynn can get really protective of her friends.” </p><p>Despite himself, Reggie smiled. “It’s fine,” he said. After a moment, he continued. “She kind of acted like … she thought … I was making a move,” he said slowly. He almost didn’t say anything, like if they didn’t acknowledge what is happening, maybe it wouldn’t be true.</p><p>“Oh,” Carrie said, her hands held in front of her now. “And what did you say?” she asked, looking up at him through her lashes. Reggie didn’t know if she knew what that did to him, but he felt his heart flutter all the same.</p><p>“I said that whatever happens is up to you,” Reggie said, crossing his arms just to do something with his hands.</p><p>“Okay,” Carrie replied, mirroring his stance. She looked down the driveway like someone was about to pull up. “I think I’m going to break up with Nick no matter what happens at lunch Monday,” she said casually though Reggie hung on her every word like they were the most important words he’d ever heard. “I just think it’s a long time coming now, and I should’ve done it sooner, and some things have come up that makes it unfair to Nick for me not to break up with him … I just feel like I’ve been stalling, but the writing on the wall has been there for a while now, and I need to move on,” she finished.</p><p>“Do what you need to do,” he said, and Carrie turned and smiled at him. "Do you still want us there?"</p><p>"It'd be nice," Carrie admitted, looking a bit sheepish at the request. Reggie thought it gave her face a soft glow in the night.

</p>
<p>Suddenly, she stepped up to him, leaving just a breath of space between them. Reaching up, she rested her palm against his right cheek before getting up on her toes to kiss his cheek as softly as she could. The kiss was over as soon as it began. “Goodnight Reggie,” she whispered before she turned around and headed inside.</p><p>When the door closed behind her, Reggie finally could move from his trance Carrie’s kiss had put him in. Slowly, he entered the studio, locked the door (as Ray had shown him), turned out the light, and got into bed, all the while wearing a smile. He realized that there were some problems with what just happened, but that’s what tomorrow was for. For the moment and for the rest of the night, Reggie just wanted to soak in the feeling of Carrie’s lips on his cheek.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Julie II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Monday mornings were the hardest, in Julie's opinion. The weekend was never long enough to get one ready for Monday. You lived all week for Friday to come around, then you count the seconds until you're free on Friday, then you do all the chores you neglected during the week because you didn't have time, and, before you know it, it's Sunday evening, and you have to get ready for Monday. So, Julie started every Monday morning with a silent curse to the universe and glare sent to her ceiling before stumbling out of her bed and to her closet.</p><p>Getting up and getting ready for school, Julie couldn’t help but feel like something was right around the corner. It put her on edge a bit, but Julie just figured it was her pessimistic waiting for the other shoe to drop from yesterday. She started playing again since her mom, Carrie and Flynn seemed to be getting along better and better, and she got to keep her spot in the music program. Obviously, she was just worried about how the universe would take her down a peg.</p><p>When she came down for breakfast, she was only half-surprised to find Reggie at the breakfast table with Carlos and her dad making it clear how welcomed Reggie was. Julie still didn’t know too much about the teen who had jumped their shared fence in hopes of spending a night in their studio unnoticed, but if the way her dad and Carlos were acting was any indication, Julie was sure she’d come to love Reggie eventually. Plus, he and Carrie seemed to already have some kind of relationship. Reggie left for his house soon after breakfast, and Julie went upstairs to finish getting ready. Soon, Carrie pulled up to her house with Flynn in the backseat to pick up Julie. Once Julie was in the care, Carrie made a surprise stop on the next street to pick up Reggie. </p><p>When they got to school, Flynn grabbed her elbow and tugged her to an abandoned school bench outside. Julie was about to ask what that was all about when Flynn shoved a piece of paper into her hand with a phone number on it. “I don’t know their name, but they have your CD. Apparently, they listened to the song and loved it, and now they really want to meet you. Have fun,” she said. Then, in true Flynn fashion, Flynn turned right back around and walked off before Julie could say anything.</p><p>Shocked to her spot, Julie blinked then looked down at the paper in her hand. If what Flynn said was true, then her CD was on the other end of this number, but so was someone who eager to meet her and push her about music, something she wasn’t completely ready for. Sighing and pushing the paper into her pocket, for the time being, Julie walked into the school and made her way to her locker.</p><p>As she grabbed what she needed for her next few classes, Julie thought about the paper as it seemed to generate heat in her pants like an angry coal. She thought about who might be on the other side of the phone and what they wanted from her and what they might do if they didn’t get it. She might not be totally at home with music yet, but she was damned if she was just gonna let some freak keep her mother’s song. (Silently, Julie was thankful for the sudden burst of anger. It hid her fear so well.)</p><p>Julie slammed her locker and made her way to her homeroom class. Swiftly taking out the paper with the phone number and her cell phone, she quickly sent off a text.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:25am<br/>I hear u have my cd</code><br/></dd></div><p>After she hit <code>SEND</code>, Julie couldn’t help but immediately regret the text. It was too forward, too demanding. She should have sent something far less confrontational. Surely, whoever was on the other end wasn’t a sociopath, right?</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:26am<br/>OMG!!!!! I &lt;3 UR VOICE!!!!! </code>
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</dd>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:26am<br/>AND UR PLAYING????!!!! GET OUTTA HERE!!!!!</code>
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</dd>
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  <code>8:26am<br/>So i have like a million ???s now a good time?</code>
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</dd>
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  <code>8:27am<br/>Did u write ‘wake up’?</code>
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</dd><br/><p>Blinking, Julie stared down at her phone as she received text message after text message. It seemed she had just finished reading the first one when whoever on the other end sent the second and so on and so forth.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:27am<br/>uhh, no</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:27am<br/>my mom wrote it</code><br/></dd></div><p>It only took a second for them to reply.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:28am<br/>Well she’s an awesome writer :D</code>
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</dd><p>Julie’s stomach flopped down and out of her body onto the floor in front of her as she read the text. Breathing in deeply, Julie sent a reply.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:28am<br/>she was. she died.</code><br/></dd></div><p>Julie waited for a response when the bell rang and the morning announcements started. They got through the pledge, and then her phone buzzed during the lunch menu. Looking down, Julie saw it was ‘CD Stranger’ as she had dubbed them.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:33am<br/>I am so sorry.</code>
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</dd><p>Julie smiled a bit bitterly at her phone.<em> How long until she was the sad girl with a dead mom to this person too? </em>she wondered. She perked up a bit when she got another message.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:33am</code>
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  <code>Do you write?</code>
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</dd><p>Amazing, they kept going, not dwelling on the loss of her mother like most people did. Most people had the habit of asking <em>When?</em> and <em>How?</em> whenever it came up. It was a bit much. It was nice to not be attacked for the details of her loss for once. But…</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:34am<br/>not since her death. we used to write 2gether</code><br/></dd></div><p>Julie then locked her phone and placed it facedown on her desk. Julie was almost certain that would be the end of it. She was almost certain that she would have weirded them out by that point, and they would want nothing to do with her. So when her phone buzzed on her desk, she was mildly surprised.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:35am<br/>Well maybe we could write sometime 👉👈</code>
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</dd><p>Julie almost laughed out loud. It looked like Flynn had been right. (Like usual, she would self-praise.) It was flattering to be sure, and if Julie hadn’t just started playing again, she might take them up on the offer.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:36am<br/>i dont think im ready 4 that</code><br/></dd></div><p>They didn’t even appear to think about Julie’s response.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:36am<br/>Well wheneva u r ready, SHOOT ME A TEXT!!!!!!</code>
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</dd>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:36am<br/>SRSLY DUDE U R AMAZING!!!!!!!</code>
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</dd>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>8:37am<br/>Can we still talk music tho?</code>
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</dd><p>Julie hesitated but eventually typed out and sent her reply.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:38am</code><br/><code>sure</code></dd>
<p></p><dd></dd></div><p>For the rest of homeroom, Julie texted with the person on the other side. She quickly learned the person was a boy in her grade at her school, that he was in a band (Sunset Curve) with his two best friends, and that he also wrote music for the band. They hadn’t exchanged names yet, but that was alright by her. They had exchanged music. They talked about their major inspirations and favorite bands and favorite songs and their instruments and anything and everything about music he could get her to talk about. </p><p>It felt electric. So much so that she nearly didn’t hear the bell ending first period. She went to her second period, texting when she could, thinking about the boy on the other end when she couldn’t. The same for the third. After that, she drew the line. Carrie had invited Reggie and his friends to their table today, and she didn’t want to seem rude, not when she would probably end up spending more time with Reggie in the future anyway.</p><p>Julie sent a text to her mysterious texting buddy, saying they would talk after lunch to which he responded with a sighing emoji which she, in turn, laughed at. She finally put her phone back in her backpack when Carrie came to her classroom so they could walk together to the lunchroom. Julie had the luck of packing a lunch today and wouldn’t have to brave the lunch line. </p><p>Settling in at the table, she turned to Flynn and smiled, to which Flynn smiled knowingly back. Julie looked up when she heard Reggie call out to them as he approached with two other guys. One guy with floppy blonde hair and a kind but anxious vibe walked up to the table with Reggie, but the other guy with brown hair which just barely poked out underneath an orange beanie bounced with electrifying excitement. Finally, Nick showed up and sat down next to Carrie. The only reason Julie really noticed (having gotten over her crush on him after she and Carrie made up, vowing to only ever see him as her boyfriend) was that he seemed bummed that he didn’t get to sit next to her. </p><p>Julie, a little confused by Nick’s response, made a point to talk to the new people at their table, especially Reggie. When Carrie stood up, she noticed Nick glaring at Reggie and his friends (Luke and Alex were their names.).</p><p>“Nick and I are going to be right back,” she said in a calm voice, not hinting about what they were going to do. As Carrie and Nick walked away down a hallway, Julie looked around. </p><p>“Did I miss something?” she asked innocently. Flynn shrugged, but Alex winced, and Reggie purposefully looked at his sandwich (though that could be that her dad packed Reggie a lunch as well as her and Carlos). “Guys?” she questioned again.</p><p>“He was staring at you,” Luke said simply like it solved everything. He shrugged. “Like a lot. Like more than friendly staring.”</p><p>“What?” she asked. Julie felt her eyebrows pull together in confusion. “What are you talking about? Nick wouldn't do that. He’s Carrie’s boyfriend.”</p><p>“Then someone really ought to have told him,” Luke said, looking a bit sad at the whole debacle. Just as Julie was going to argue with him further, Carrie re-entered the lunchroom and made her way to the table with Nick on her heels. Instead of sitting down next to her, he grabbed his stuff and made his way to the lacrosse team’s table halfway across the room. </p><p>“What just happened?” Julie asked incredulously, looking at Carrie. Strangely, Carrie seemed fine. </p><p>“Oh, we broke up,” she said so nonchalantly. She was about to say something else when the bell rang. “See you, girls, later,” she cheered as she left for her class. </p><p>As the others dispersed, Julie couldn’t help but wonder what just happened.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Luke II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:25am<br/>I hear u have my cd</code>
  <br/>
</dd><code>
  <br/>
</code><p>When Luke saw that text come in, he felt the earth shake. Quickly taking his seat in Ms. Harrison’s homeroom, he quickly sent off texts as he thought of them.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:26am<br/>OMG!!!!! I &lt;3 UR VOICE!!!!!</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:26am<br/>AND UR PLAYING????!!!! GET OUTTA HERE!!!!!</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:26am<br/>So i have like a million ???s now a good time?</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>8:27am<br/>Did u write ‘wake up’?</code><br/></dd><br/></div>He realized that maybe shooting text after text might be a bit overwhelming, but he couldn’t bring himself to slow down. This girl was an absolute wrecking ball! And she had his full permission to wreck him any day of the week.<p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:27am<br/>uhh, no</code>
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</dd><code>
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</code><p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:27am<br/>my mom wrote it</code>
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</dd><code>
  <br/>
</code><p>Luke gave a small smile, picturing a mom and a daughter leaning over a piano, going over music together. It reminded him of the good times he and his own mom had, before all the fighting about the band seemed to drown out all their inside jokes.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code><div><p>8:28am<br/>
Well she’s an awesome writer :D</p></div>8:28am<br/>she was. she died.</code>
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</dd><p>Luke felt like the biggest jerk ever. For a full five minutes, through the pledge and everything, he wondered what he could do to make up for being so insensitive.</p>
<p></p><dd>
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  <code>
    <div>
      <p>8:33am<br/>
I am so sorry.</p>
      <p><br/>
</p>
      <p>8:33am<br/>
Do you write?</p>
    </div>
  </code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Luke almost didn’t send the second text, but he couldn’t let the conversation end there, and the girl did have some mad musical talent … Wincing, Luke realized he might seem a bit insensitive, but she had to know that she was too talented for this to be it.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:34am<br/>not since her death. we used to write 2gether</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>For just a moment, Luke wanted to demand why she would deprive the world of her talent, himself a big believer in music needing to be shared, when he realized that maybe she needed someone with her writing. Luke did have trouble sometimes writing for Sunset Curve without Reggie or Alex.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>
    <div>
      <p>8:35am<br/>
Well maybe we could write sometime 👉👈</p>
    </div>
  </code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Luke didn’t think until after he sent it that she might think that he was flirting with her, but really, he didn’t think it was that big a deal. Hopefully, it wasn’t a big deal.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:36am<br/>i dont think im ready 4 that</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Luke didn’t know whether that was because of him or not, but he felt the need to cover up the awkwardness of his request with another text dump.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>
    <div>
      <p>8:36am<br/>
Well wheneva u r ready, SHOOT ME A TEXT!!!!!!</p>
      <p><br/>
</p>
      <p>8:36am<br/>
SRSLY DUDE U R AMAZING!!!!!!!</p>
      <p><br/>
</p>
      <p>8:37am<br/>
Can we still talk music tho?</p>
    </div>
  </code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>With the last text sent off, Luke really hoped he hadn’t ruined this budding friendship. The girl had pipes that he couldn’t get out of his head. He even found himself writing her into songs for the band, going as far as to re-write some songs retroactively. If Luke wasn't careful he might do something stupid, like asking her to join Sunset Curve or fall in love or even both.</p><p>His phone buzzed again, and Luke felt his face split into a grin.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>8:38am</code>
  <br/>
  <code> sure </code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>He continued to text her for the next three periods, whenever he could sneak a text. Luke had thought that falling in love over text sounded like a cliché, but this girl was slowly making him a believer. When lunch came, the girl said she had to go for a bit, to which he sent a sighing emoji.</p><p>“Hey guys,” Reggie said at the end of third, “mind if we sit with some friends of mine?” Reggie looked expectantly at Luke.</p><p>“Why you looking at me?” Luke asked, shoving Reggie’s shoulder playfully. “Finally accepting me as the leader?” he joked.</p><p>“Nope, he already asked me last period,” Alex spoke up, already packed up and ready to go to lunch, standing by their table with anxiety masquerading as nonchalance in his body language.</p><p>“Yeah, what he said, plus, you’ve been super out of it since CD Cinderella texted you, but I just know you’ll love them! Trust me,” Reggie pleaded, hands and all. </p><p>“I have not!” erupted Luke. He realized that he had been talking with the girl on the track (he categorically refused to call her CD Cinderella) basically all morning, but that’s not a crime! Alex rolled his eyes good-naturedly, and Luke could already see the smart-mouth reply cooking in Alex’s head.</p><p>“Yes, you have been, and are you really a trustworthy figure? Do you not remember the thing with the hotdogs? Okay,” Alex said simply, and Luke spotted the fidget cube Willie had gifted Alex in his hand, signaling that they needed to get to lunch soon. </p><p>“That was a one-time thing!” Reggie protested. Reggie placed his right hand over his heart and held up his left hand like he was taking an oath. “Scout’s honor!”</p><p>“You were never a Boy Scout,” Luke pointed out as he packed up the last of his stuff. He started to make his way out the door to the lunchroom, all the while his boys flocking him, Reggie pleading for them to eat with his new friend. “Alright! Where are we sitting?” Luke finally said as if they weren’t going to sit with Reggie’s new friend when he first asked. </p><p>Reggie smiled and took the lead to the lunchroom to a table along the side with three girls already there. All the girls seemed to know Reggie, and Luke wondered when Reggie had time to meet these girls. </p><p>“Hey! I’m Luke,” he introduced himself with a wave once the girls and Reggie exchanged greetings. </p><p>“Flynn,” said the girl with wicked braids and rainbow bracelets. Flynn, as she called herself, lifted her hand in a small wave.</p><p>“Carrie,” said the girl with a pixie-like face and super clean clothing. “Charmed, I’m sure,” she said in what Luke hoped was a teasingly pretentious tone as she put her hand out for a handshake. (Or a kiss on her knuckles. Luke wasn’t sure.)</p><p>“And I’m Julie,” shrugged the girl with butterfly hairpins. Luke immediately thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. (The girl on the CD didn’t count because he had not technically met her. <em>Yet.</em>)</p><p>“Alex, how’s it going?” Alex added somewhat nervously. He held his hands in front of himself awkwardly as if he didn’t know what to do with them. </p><p>“Who are these guys?” asked a new voice from behind Luke. Turning around, Luke found a blonde guy with a letterman jacket looking a bit confused at the new developments.</p><p>“Nick, these are the guys I was talking about yesterday in music class,” Carrie said while setting up her place at the lunch table. As soon as she started to arrange herself, so too did Flynn and Julie, so Luke and the boys took their cue and descended upon the table. “Guys, this is my boyfriend Nick.”</p><p>Luke looked up to say hi to Nick, only to see him look longingly at a seemingly oblivious Julie. Thinking that was not something he wanted to unpack in case he screwed over Reggie, Luke tried to i9gnore Nick’s looks towards Julie throughout lunch, only for that to be made impossible when Nick started to glare at him which really didn't make any sense to him (though he and Julie did have this unexplainable connection, like they had met before or something). Still Luke made an effort to ignore him and enjoy the otherwise pleasant company. Just when Luke was going to make a scene (one can only take so much, after all, and Nick was starting to wear him down), Reggie’s new friends be damned, when Carrie got up and took him away from the table. Luke would’ve winced in sympathy, but the dude deserved it for staring at another girl all lunch.</p><p>It seemed the whole table, Nick included, seemed to know what was going to happen except Julie. Julie looked around the table and asked, “Did I miss something?”</p><p>No one seemed to want to answer her so Luke took it upon himself. “He was staring at you. Like a lot. Like more than friendly staring.” </p><p>“What?” she asked, and Luke felt a little stab of pain. “What are you talking about? Nick wouldn't do that. He’s Carrie’s boyfriend.”</p><p>“Then someone really ought to have told him,” Luke said, feeling really bad for the girl in front of her. He didn’t know how exactly she would react to being a factor in a friend’s breakup, but Luke would be inconsolable. </p><p>Just as Julie was rearing up to argue with him, Carrie re-entered the lunchroom and made her way to the table with Nick on her heels. Instead of sitting back down next to her, he grabbed his stuff and made his way to the lacrosse team’s table halfway across the room.</p><p>“What just happened?” Julie asked incredulously, looking at Carrie. Luke winced at just how lost Julie seemed. </p><p>“Oh, we broke up,” her friend said so nonchalantly, and Luke could almost feel Julie’s frustration. She was about to say something else when the bell rang. “See you, girls, later,” Carrie cheered as she left for her class.</p><p>Slowly the table dissipated, everyone going for their different classes. Luke made a point of meeting Alex’s eyes and sliding them towards Julie since he remembered that they shared the next period. Alex looked over to Julie and nodded.</p><p>When Luke saw Alex make his way over to Julie to nudge her to go to class, Luke turned around and pulled out his phone. Now that lunch was over, maybe the CD girl was free to talk.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Alex II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex took the job of steering Julie to her next class easy enough considering they shared a fourth-period English class. What wasn’t as easy was the weirdly personal questions Julie started asking. But at least she wasn’t asking about Alex.</p><p>“Did you think Nick was staring at me?” Julie asked nervously. Alex simply shrugged, having already learned that Julie wasn’t actually looking for answers but rather a soundboard for her rant. It was best to give non-committal responses. “I mean, he’s Carrie’s boyfriend, or … at least … he was? I mean, he wouldn’t just stare at me at lunch when he’s <em>Carrie’s boyfriend</em>, right?” When Julie finished her rant by placing her head down on her half of their shared desk and groaning, Alex figured it was safe to speak again.</p><p>“Hey, Julie?” Alex prompted. Julie turned her head to look at Alex. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think Carrie blames you for how things ended with Nick.” Julie gave a rueful smile but was prevented from speaking by the bell which signaled the beginning of class. For the rest of the class, Alex and Julie didn’t really speak, but Alex sent her reassuring glances and smiles whenever they happened to face each other. Alex even managed to glare off a few nosy classmates who bit less subtle with their staring and gossiping.</p><p>At the end of class, Julie grabbed Alex’s elbow and muttered a soft, “Thanks,” before leaving him with a grateful smile. Alex gave his own smile and left for his fifth-period Government class with Reggie. He had a feeling he would be on his cell phone like yesterday, and, just as he predicted, Reggie was typing away on his phone when Alex arrived.</p><p>“Is it safe to assume that’s Carrie on the other end?” Alex whispered pointedly as he sat down next to Reggie. As Reggie started to stutter out something like a lie mixed with an excuse, Alex just shook his head. “Just tell me she’s alright?”</p><p>Reggie looked around to see if anyone had heard their conversation before giving a small sigh. “She’s okay. She kind of saw this coming for a while now, but just recently figured it was truly over. She says she’s fine and ready to move on, but I don’t know,” Reggie murmured quietly. Alex almost didn’t hear that last part.</p><p>“You like her?” Alex questioned, already a bit worried. Reggie might seem to outsiders like a huge flirt, but that was only because he tended to fall hard and fast, usually with less-than-deserving people (if Alex was completely honest but that was only his opinion, though Luke more than wholeheartedly agreed).</p><p>Reggie shrugged. “That doesn’t really matter right now, does it?” Reggie speculated without any feeling, but Alex knew better. Alex watched his friend for a moment before giving in.</p><p>“Okay,” Alex relented. “Just … be careful, alright? I don’t think anyone wants a repeat of the last girl.” The last girl Reggie had been seriously interested in had just gotten out of a relationship when they met and had ultimately used Reggie to make her ex jealous though Reggie had really liked her.</p><p>“This had nothing to do with Ronnie,” Reggie insisted angrily, but he grudgingly nodded. A short moment of silence passed as Alex pulled out the necessary materials for their weekly packet of busywork before he suddenly pulled back and looked at Reggie.</p><p>“How did you and Carrie even meet?” Alex asked curiously, becoming even more interested when Reggie froze on the spot.</p><p>“We met the other day in the office,” Reggie said simply. From his tone, Alex could tell that was all Reggie was willing to give on the subject, and Alex decided to leave that alone.</p><p>“You said earlier you got locked out of your house last night. What happened?” Alex asked, not so elegantly changing the subject. After all, Alex hadn’t been able to get the information out of Reggie earlier since their History class had a test.</p><p>“I walked outside from the kitchen door. It doesn’t matter. Ray says I can crash anytime it gets too loud anyway,” Reggie supplied simply, like it wasn’t that big a deal, but, even if Alex didn’t know Reggie better than to buy into Reggie’s nonchalant act, Alex would have zeroed in on this new information.</p><p>“Who’s Ray?” Alex asked expectantly, watching Reggie for any kind of reaction.</p><p>Reggie just smiled and said honestly, “He’s my fence neighbor. I tried to sneak into his studio for the night, but he caught me.” Reggie started to get more and more excited with every word, betraying how he really felt about his new friend. “He invited me inside for pizza and set up the pull-out for me and even let me and the girls watch movies,” Reggie gushed before he clamped his mouth shut with a slightly horrified look on his face like he had given away some sort of secret. Because he had.</p><p>“Girls?” Alex asked incredulously, mostly because he didn’t really know what to make of it. Knowing Reggie, he could have meant five-years-olds, grannies, or college girls.</p><p>“Uh, yeah, see Ray is … kind of … Julie’s dad?” Reggie said with large amounts of uncertainty while refusing to meet Alex’s eye. Alex almost wanted to laugh, but it was Reggie, and Reggie was never weird without a reason. Sometimes that reason was Reggie was Reggie, but there was always a legitimate reason.</p><p>“And that’s … important … because?” Alex slowly prompted, giving Reggie a weird look.</p><p>“Well … because ... Julie is …” Reggie whispered almost silently. Alex simply gave him a look before Reggie let out a sigh. “Look, Julie … is the girl … on the track Luke’s obsessed with,” Reggie said as he fidgeted with his pencil.</p><p>“Oh. Okay,” Alex said simply before nodding and letting the conversation die there in favor of spiraling helplessly in his head. Questions of what this meant for their band and friendship spun in his head as his anxiety took his worst fears and this new piece of information and spun up Alex’s newest nightmare. Before he knew it, the period was over and Alex was headed for his gym class. He didn’t even remember packing up. Maybe he didn’t.</p><p>Alex knew he was being ridiculous. This was probably nothing. If anything, Luke would continue to be obsessed with Julie’s voice and maybe ask her to join the band (to which Alex couldn’t say he was opposed if she brought with her wicked piano skills). Everything would be fine, but the thing about anxiety was it didn’t really co-exist with logic. By the time Alex had gotten changed and made it to the gym, he could barely control his breathing. He almost had a heartache when someone grabbed his shoulder. Jumping around to see who had grabbed him, Alex saw the last person he wanted to see him like this: Willie.</p><p>“Hey,” Willie said, a serious look on his face. “Are you okay?” he asked, concern etched into his body language.</p><p>Alex couldn’t really respond in words, so Alex just shook his head subtly, trying to remember any one of the breathing exercises Luke and Reggie looked up to help with his panic attacks.</p><p>“Okay, just … come on,” Willie said eventually. Following Willie, Alex stumbled up to the gym teacher in charge of the class. (He was a nice man if a bit intense.) Alex didn’t hear what Willie told the gym teacher, but it didn’t matter because he was suddenly handed a hall pass (though that was a little generous of a description for how the pass was shoved in his face) and Willie was steering him back into the dressing rooms. “Hey, can you just breathe with me for a second?” Willie asked, and just like that, Alex found himself matching Willie’s breathing like it was the most natural thing in the world. </p><p>Once Alex could maintain breathing normally by himself, Willie stepped back to give Alex space. It was at this moment that Alex was made acutely aware that he and Willie were alone. In the dressing rooms. Alone. And Willie just had to calm Alex down from a panic attack. He felt the blood rush to his face as he tried to sputter out apologies.</p><p>Willie only laughed it off. “Relax man,” Willie said sunnily. “Don’t even mention it.” Looking around mischievously, Willie’s facial expression turned conspiratorial. “Say, that pass is good for the rest of the period.” Willie leaned in as if to tell Alex a secret, and Alex found himself leaning in too. “Want to ditch?” Willie asked. </p><p>Somehow, despite all reason, Alex found himself agreeing and redressing into his normal clothing. (And no, he did <em>not</em> sneak a peek at Willie as he got dressed; he was far too nervous about possibly getting caught to do that.) In five minutes flat, they were walking down the hall towards the fine arts wing aimlessly.</p><p>“Hey,” Willie said suddenly, and Alex turned to face him. Willie was facing down the hallway, looking at Alex out the corner of his eye when he said, “Want to see the auditorium?”</p><p>“What’s so interesting about the auditorium?” Alex asked and promptly blushed. Just as he was going to apologize for being rude, Willie burst out laughing.</p><p>“Don’t worry, you’ll see,” Willie insisted before grabbing Alex’s hand and pulling him towards the auditorium. Alex, in his absolute blissful shock, was powerless to stop Willie as he dragged him to a side door and snuck inside the auditorium. After checking to make sure they were alone, Willie laughed and made for the stage, doing a cartwheel once he was there. “You want to know what’s <em>so interesting</em> about the auditorium, Hotdog?” Willie asked. Alex was about to answer when Willie let out the best yell he could.</p><p>“Dude!” Alex exclaimed. “Are you insane?” Alex worriedly looked around as if an adult was summoned by their very presence.</p><p>“Dude, chill,” Willie insisted with a smile. “The auditorium is soundproof. Nobody can hear us. So…..” Willie gestured at Alex, and Alex gave a half-hearted shout. Laughing, Willie surged forth, dragged Alex onstage, and commanded him to scream. “Come on, Hotdog!” Willie encouraged.</p><p>Alex hesitated for a second before screaming again, this time in earnest. Then Willie screamed again. Then Alex. Then Willie. Until they were screaming together, alone in this big auditorium. When they were done, they traded looks and immediately burst into laughter.</p><p>“We’re definitely doing this again,” Willie said with a smile.</p><p>“Yeah, I think … I’d like that,” Alex said shyly. </p><p>For the rest of the period, Alex and Willie talked about this and that. Willie asked about Alex’s band, and Alex humbly bragged on his friends’ abilities, how Reggie absolutely shredded on bass and how Luke could write a song about practically anything. Willie promised to come and see them, and Alex tried to ignore the butterflies he felt when Willie said that. They got so caught up in their conversation that they almost missed their seventh periods. </p><p>Apparently, a soundproof auditorium meant that nobody could hear what was going outside on top of hiding two ditching teens’ screams.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Flynn II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Flynn was not worried about Carrie. Totally. Not worried. It’s not like they were back to being friends. Plus, Carrie was a total badass who didn’t need a boy to hold her back. She was better off without Nick. Needless to say, Flynn walked a bit quicker than usual to Chemistry. </p><p>Seeing that Carrie hadn’t yet arrived, Flynn started to set up in their usual place off to the side, thinking about how best to question her maybe-ex-maybe-not-bestie about her abrupt (though admittedly predictable) split from the golden boy of Los Feliz High at lunch on Monday. Carrie had seemed fine afterward at the table, but Flynn knew better than to trust looks in the aftermath of a breakup.  Unfortunately, Flynn had not had the chance to really corner Carrie (having grown up with a rockstar father, Carrie knew how to avoid unwanted attention), so now, on Thursday, <em>a full three days after the breakup,</em> Flynn was determined to get to the bottom of it.</p><p>Lost in her thoughts, Flynn only startled back to awareness when Carrie waved her hand in front of Flynn’s face after the girl didn’t return her greeting.</p><p>“Is everything okay?” Carrie asked teasingly with a large grin stretching across her face. </p><p>“Uh, yeah,” Flynn returned halfheartedly while she took a closer look at Carrie. The first thing she noticed was that there were no signs of crying at all: no puffy face, no red eyes, no stray tissues or patches of tears on Carrie’s clothing, her makeup was even in good condition (though she could do with some touch-up on the eyeliner). Moreover, the smile Carrie offered seemed genuine and sincere, like she was really happy. Still, Carrie was a master of hiding what was bothering her. If anyone could hide their messy breakup feelings, it was Carrie. “How about you?” Flynn asked cautiously.</p><p>“I’m good!” Carrie gushed appropriately, her smile almost blinding. “Really, Flynn, I feel great. The breakup with Nick has been a long time coming, and I’m just glad we could agree that it was time to let go. Hopefully, we can even go back to being friends without all the awkwardness of being exes, ya know?” All the while, Carrie smiled at people as they walked past them while Flynn glared at them for trying to glean some gossip to pass on to their friends later about the It-couple’s breakup. </p><p>“Yeah,” Flynn gave, not really sure how to respond to such a statement. </p><p>Just then, Carrie’s phone buzzed, and she scrambled to get it. (Carrie Wilson didn’t scramble. For anything.) Flynn felt her eyes widen before she remembered that they were being watched for any crack in Carrie’s psyche and forced herself to relax. Looking to see what was the big deal, Flynn caught Carrie smiling dopily at her phone before it buzzed again and she let out a small giggle.</p><p>“Who’s that?” Flynn asked as casually as possible, growing more and more aware of the eyes watching to see if Carrie burst into tears in Chemistry. Flynn looked around the room and glared down anyone whose eyes she caught.</p><p>“Oh, it’s Reggie. He’s been sending me jokes and stuff,” Carrie replied flippantly, but Flynn tensed. It was clear to her from what she saw Friday night and then again at lunch that something was going on between the two teens, but Flynn quietly wondered whether this was healthy for Carrie since she only just got out of her relationship with Nick.</p><p>“Oh yeah?” Flynn followed up, hoping to get more information on the situation. After all, Carrie couldn’t benefit from her guru-level-love-advice if Flynn didn’t have all the variables.</p><p>“Yeah, Flynn,” Carrie teased, knowing full-well that Flynn was fishing for details. Suddenly, Carrie leaned close and whispered in Flynn’s ear. “I know you’re worried that something bad is going to happen, but it’s not like that.” Pulling back, Carrie shot Flynn a look that said ‘we’ll-talk-more-later’ before turning to do the busy-work their teacher had given them for the day.</p><p>For the rest of the period, Flynn would sneak glances at Carrie worriedly while Carrie worked diligently on the worksheet of the day while occasionally answering texts from who Flynn assumed was Reggie (based on how Carrie smiled and giggled every time her phone buzzed). When not making sure her friend was okay, Flynn was staring down nosy teenagers who wanted to wallow in Carrie’s misery for entertainment. By the time the class was over, Flynn had barely managed to write her name on her worksheet. (Thankfully, Flynn was able to take it for homework, but still.)</p><p>Reluctantly, Flynn said goodbye to Carrie and walked to her sixth period Media class. Sitting down in her usual seat, Flynn began to actually work on the Chemistry sheet while she waited for class to start. When Luke slid into the seat beside her, she sent him a nod in acknowledgment which he smiled at before looking down at his phone. Rolling her eyes, Flynn returned her attention to the sheet she should’ve done last period. It was a little harder than usual (since she didn’t have anyone to ask questions or a scientific calculator), but she was able to finish before the end of class, leaving her with some time to spare before the bell rang.</p><p>Looking around the room, she saw many people’s heads spin back to their desks as soon as she turned to look at them. Tensing her jaw, Flynn resisted the impulse to groan out loud. Sure, she knew that with Carrie’s and Julie’s friendship on the mend and Cick’s breakup in the news, Julie might get more attention than usual, but what did Flynn have to do with any of this?</p><p>Just when Flynn thought about faking a stomach ache to get out of class, Luke leaned over and said, “Just ignore them.” Looking over, Flynn saw Luke give her a sympathetic smile before turning back to his phone. She thought that would be the last of it when he spoke up again. “How are your friends handling all this?” he asked nonchalantly. (From what Flynn had gathered, Luke didn’t really have the ability to hide his enthusiasm, so she figured he was really asking out of genuine compassion.)</p><p>Sighing, Flynn went over the situation in her head before responding. “I think Carrie is either completely fine and ready to move on or secretly dying from the pain, and we won’t know the truth of it until the autopsy results come back. I haven’t talked to Julie about it yet, but I doubt she is enjoying being under a microscope. Plus, <em>someone</em> thought it was a good idea to the cat out of the bag in regards to Nick’s poorly hidden crush,” she said quietly, careful not to let anyone overhear their conversation.</p><p>To his credit, Luke gave a small wince. “Yeah, sorry about that. I honestly thought she knew,” he laughed with a soft smile. “I mean, you can ask Alex or Reggie, I can be totally clueless, and I saw it clear as day.” Flynn gave a small chuckle at that to which Luke rewarded with a smile. “How are you holding up?” Luke asked, and Flynn looked shocked for a second.</p><p>“I’m … good, I guess,” Flynn hesitantly supplied. It was an honest answer at least. No one had been so bold (or stupid) to come up to Flynn and demand details on the hottest breakup since Brangelina, but Flynn was still stressed out. She couldn’t stop worrying about how Carrie was being constantly surveilled and how Julie was dealing with the influx of attention, but things could be worse she supposed.</p><p>Luke did not look convinced. “Well, if you need somebody to talk to-” he started before Flynn cut him off.</p><p>“Let me guess, I can turn to you?” she asked teasingly, hoping to turn the conversation to a lighter topic. </p><p>Luke laughed before starting again. “No no no, I was thinking more like Alex or Reggie. They’re the super-cool-emotionally-available types. I’m more like their guitar-playing jester with an eternal hatred against sleeves,” he said easily, sending Flynn into a fit of laughter just as the bell rang. “See ya tomorrow Flynn,” Luke called over his shoulder as he made his way to his next class.</p><p>“Bye Luke,” Flynn called back as she headed to Ms. Harrison’s classroom. With every step, Flynn reminded herself that everything was probably going to be fine. With any luck, Ms. Harrison would let them work on their next performance piece though that seemed unlikely. Most likely, Ms. Harrison would be handing out some song for the class to learn or lecturing on a particular musical style (which might just serve her purposes now that Flynn thought about it).</p><p>Upon entering the music room, Flynn saw that the class seemed to try to divide itself, and Flynn had a few ideas as to how it happened. On one side, Nick’s lacrosse friends sat waiting for their buddy while the other side of the room was populated by Carrie’s bandmates and friends from the school’s dance team. Each group was trying its hardest to ignore the existence of the other group without seeming to; people who didn’t fit in with one group over the other traded looks with each other, and everyone seemed painfully aware of how awkward it was.</p><p>Flynn waited by the door, reaching out to pull Julie to stand next to her when Julie tried (and abysmally failed) to sneak in. A quick look at Julie’s face showed Flynn that Julie was at the end of her rope. Placing a soothing hand on the other girl’s shoulder, Flynn tried to give her friend an encouraging smile though she had a feeling it came out as less encouraging and more sympathetic. </p><p>Just as Flynn was going to say something, she looked over and saw Carrie and Nick walk to Ms. Harrison’s desk together. The two students seemed to have a short discussion with their teacher before Ms. Harrison gave a short nod and waved them off. With that, Carrie made her way to the front of the class with Nick following her. Despite the lack of noise present in the room, Carrie still cleared her throat as if to draw the room’s attention (like she didn't from the beginning).</p><p>Looking around the room, Carrie spotted Flynn and Julie and gave them a small smile before turning back to the class. Flynn felt her heart rate pick up as she waited with bated breath for whatever weird announcement this ex-couple had for them.</p><p>“Hi everyone,” Carrie began, and Flynn knew then she had nothing to worry about. As soon as Carrie put on her pageant-queen-smile for all to fawn over, she had the class (and, in the aftermath of this little speech hitting Insta and TikTok, the entire school) under her spell.  “I know you all have some questions for Nick and I, and I know I speak for both of us when I say we would love nothing better than to clear up any misunderstanding, but there’s really not much to say.” Carrie took a pause to look at Nick, and anyone else would think that Carrie was making sure Nick agreed, but Flynn would bet anything that this was just an elaborate theatrical performance to decrease speculation and unwanted attention. Turning back to the class, Carrie gave an innocent shrug and continued on. “We just weren’t working anymore,” Carrie said, “not like we used to or wanted to. It just was time to take a step back from our relationship to rediscover our relationship.”</p><p>Suddenly, Nick cut in. “Carrie and I still care very much about each other,” he said, looking a bit uncomfortable. “We just … need to take a break.” Nick brought his hands together awkwardly in front of himself, and Flynn saw Carrie blink away her frustration at Nick while keeping her pageant-smile firmly in place.</p><p>“Right! Exactly!” Carrie cheered. “We just need a break. We’re still friends, and we hope we haven’t affected any of your friendships with our little breakup.” Pausing to sigh in relief, Carrie watched the class carefully as they shifted in their seats. As if she sensed they needed more, Carrie said, “Frankly, this has been a long time coming.” As the class (including Nick apparently) took in the bombshell Carrie just dropped, Carrie raised her arms in the universal sign for ‘oh-well.’ “Yeah, I think we both can agree we’re ready to move on to other things and people and relationships. I hope that answers your questions.”</p><p>With a smile and wave, Carrie made her way lazily to her seat in the front row. Sensing that was the end of it (and seeing the bell was about to ring), Flynn maneuvered Julie into a seat next to Carrie. Julie, by the way, must have been exceedingly shocked by Carrie’s little announcement if Julie’s facial expression was anything to go off of. Flynn’s bestie looked like she had seen a ghost.</p><p>Looking back to the front of the class, Flynn saw Nick had not moved from his spot in the front but was instead watching Carrie with a very interesting look on his face. If Flynn had to describe it, she would call it a mix between shock and sadness. Oh yeah, this debacle was far from over, Flynn could tell.</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Julie III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julie fidgeted with her backpack straps as she, Flynn, and Carrie made their way to Carrie’s car in the parking lot. They only stopped once when Carrie stopped to ask Reggie if he wanted a ride. Julie’s neighbor bashfully turned down the offer, citing band practice in the music room. Carrie playfully teased Reggie that she’d take a rain check and the boy laughed a smidge too loud (though he seemed not to notice which apparently charmed Carrie).</p><p>Now, they were on their way to her house with only the radio playing. Julie spent the ride contemplating how to broach the topic of Carrie’s breakup from Nick with her friend when Carrie turned onto the road into Julie’s neighborhood. Suddenly, Julie felt a slight panic, fearing Carrie would just drop them off and they would not get to have the conversation Julie desperately wanted to have.</p><p>Julie was going to ask Carrie to stay for a moment when they pulled into the driveway when Carrie turned to Julie, gave a smile, and asked, “Can I stay for a while? I didn’t really get what was going on in Calculus today and could use some help with the homework.”</p><p>Julie nearly gave a sigh of relief as she nodded in the affirmative. “I’m sure my dad would be cool with it,” Julie said, stepping out of the car.</p><p>“Sweet! Study group with my girls!” Flynn squealed. “Set up in the kitchen?” she called as she made her way to the front door.</p><p>“Um, is that the room with all the snacks? It’s got my vote,” Carrie cheered after her, following Flynn to the front door, but Julie hung back for a moment.</p><p>“Guys,” she called out tentatively. “Do you think we could study in my mom’s studio?” Julie asked, looking at said building up the drive. She didn’t notice the looks traded between Flynn and Carrie, but she did feel them loop their arms through hers to make a human chain.</p><p>“That sounds wonderful Julie,” Carrie said with a warm smile.</p><p>“I’m down,” Flynn said, starting to tug Julie towards the studio. Laughing, the trio of girls made their way to the studio up the drive. Julie only hesitated to take a deep breath before opening the doors and taking a few steps into the studio. The other two girls followed slowly afterward, making for the sitting area off to the side so they could pull out their homework.</p><p>“I’m going to run inside and let my dad know you guys are here,” Julie said after she put her stuff down by the couch.</p><p>“Good idea,” Carrie said. “I’ll come with and help with snacks.” And with that, the two girls were walking up to the house to the kitchen table Ray Molina was known to work at. Julie spent that time anxiously trying to find the words to ask the question burning a hole in her mind: Did she really cause her friend’s breakup? </p><p>Right as they reached the door, Julie was stopped by a hand on her elbow. Turning back to face Carrie, the other girl had a reluctant yet stubborn look on her face. “Carrie, is something up?” Julie asked uneasily though she was willing to bet she knew what was going on.</p><p>“I think we need to talk,” Carrie said as she gestured to the chairs Ray kept on the front porch. Sighing, Julie took a seat on a bench while Carrie took a nearby seat. “I know you have some questions. Go ahead.”</p><p>Julie sighed before she let out the question on her mind since lunch. “What happened with you and Nick? I thought you guys were good, and now suddenly he’s staring at me? I just feel like I missed something big.” Julie shook her head and rubbed her face with her hands.</p><p>“Yeah, I bet it felt sudden to you,” Carrie said tersely before shaking her head herself. “I’ll start by saying nothing that happened between Nick and I was your fault. Frankly, I think Nick might have gotten bored with our relationship but just didn’t want to be the bad guy and initiate the breakup. At the same time, I think he developed a crush on you and didn’t want to look like he broke up with me for you or make it look like you were some homewrecker.” </p><p>“What does that mean?” Julie implored. “I mean, what do you think Nick was trying to do? Was he stringing you along or-” Julie cut herself off with a wince, realizing that this was probably not the best line of questioning for Carrie.</p><p>Sighing, Carrie pinched the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed before leaning back in her chair and looking up. “I don’t think Nick meant to hurt me, not that he didn’t, but I’ve mostly gotten over it.” A smile came over Carrie’s face. “Reggie helps a lot. In fact, it was talking to him that convinced me that I needed to break up with Nick. He’s really great.” Turning to look at Julie, Carrie continued with a smile. “I don’t blame you, Julie. You didn’t even realize what was going on, and I know you would never encourage something like that with Nick while we were dating.” Taking a deep breath as if to center herself, Carrie took one final pause. “So if you and Nick want to pursue something-”</p><p>“No!” Julie finally cut in, slightly embarrassed after the fact but she kept going. “No, I don’t think that would be right. I just … it doesn’t sit right with me that he was interested in me while he was with you,” she eventually said, playing with her shoelaces.</p><p>“Julie, what happened between me and Nick is between me and Nick. You had nothing to do with it,” insisted Carrie. She even put her hand up to stop Julie when it looked like she would cut in again. “No. Was it awesome to see my boyfriend pine over my best friend? No, but it also wasn’t your fault. If anything, Nick is at fault for not being more honest about his feelings. He could’ve realized he lost interest and broken up with me then, or when he started having feelings for you, but no.” Carrie reached forward and grabbed one of Julie’s hands. “I’m not angry at Nick. I’ve known for a while our relationship was over, on some level. I just made it official.” Carrie stood up and offered her hand to Julie to help her up with a smile. “I’m fine Julie. I feel like I’ve had a lot of time to prepare for this, and I’m not angry. I feel very relieved, in fact, to finally have this all behind us.”</p><p>Julie smiled and took Carrie’s hand, quickly pulling the other girl into a warm hug. The girls stood there for a moment before giggling and pulling away. (And if both girls wiped away a few stray tears, they’d never tell.) “Let’s get some snacks and get back to Flynn before she comes looking for us,” Julie said, moving to the front door.</p><p>“Lead the way,” Carrie said warmly, following Julie into the house now that their much-needed discussion was concluded. Making their way to the kitchen, Julie and Carrie came across Carlos taking pictures around the house with his iPad. Sharing a confused look, the girls watched him for a moment.</p><p>“Uh, Carlos,” Julie spoke up, “what are you doing?” Crossing her arms, Julie nodded to the iPad in her little brother’s hands.</p><p>“I’m trying to find the ghost!” explained Carlos as he continued to take pictures of air. “I think he’s a chef, but I haven’t been able to confirm yet.”</p><p>Julie rolled her eyes with a smile. “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” she said warmly, giving her brother a teasing look. </p><p>Carlos put the iPad down to glare at Julie before resuming his search. “Reggie believes me,” he groaned, and Julie smiled. Reggie had been coming over a lot lately (sometimes to spend the night, sometimes to help Carlos with his homework, sometimes to just get away from his parents' fighting, but Julie had noticed that her dad and Carlos were a bit happier when Reggie came overnm,./ ).</p><p>“What?” Carrie questioned with a pleasantly surprised tone. Julie turned and saw Carrie intently focused on what Carlos was about to say. (It made Julie smile. She hadn’t seen Carrie that happy since the first time she performed with Dirty Candy.)</p><p>“Yeah!” Carlos said around his ghost hunt. “He even said he would help me catch the ghost later this weekend if I wanted,” Carlos said smugly, sending a superior look to his older sister which Julie took in stride.</p><p>“Okay,” Julie relented, “just be careful you don’t break anything.” Carlos rolled his eyes but reluctantly nodded his head. Julie just gave him a kiss on the top of his head which Carlos pretended to be offended and grossed out by. Laughing, Julie tugged Carrie further into the house so they could get what they came for. </p><p>Walking into the dining room, the girls found the patriarch of the household at the table, as usual, looking through photographs from his job. “Hey girls,” Ray greeted from the table.</p><p>“Hey Ray!” Carrie called from the kitchen as she set about setting up a snack tray for the three girls.</p><p>“Hey Dad,” Julie said as she went over to give her dad a hug. “Flynn and Carrie are going to stay so we can work on our Calculus together. Is that okay?” she asked, pulling back.</p><p>“Of course,” Ray smiled. “Do you need me to move or-” Ray started pulling his stuff together so he could easily move to another room if necessary.</p><p>“No, Dad, we were thinking we would actually use Mom’s studio,” Julie said nonchalantly, knowing her dad would latch onto this new bit of information. (Carrie, being in the background and seeing where this conversation might end up, started to gather things faster, quietly gathering the last few touches on the snack tray already piled high with the girls’ favorite snacks.)</p><p>“Really?” Ray asked with happy disbelief. When Julie gave a small nod, Julie could see her dad try to tamp down on his excitement. “Well, uh, okay. Sure! Call if you need anything!”</p><p>“We will!” Carrie spoke up. Picking up the tray, Carrie sent Julie a secretive smile as she walked towards the door that led to the studio. “Julie, can you grab those drinks for me?” As she passed by Julie and Ray, Carrie managed to send a wink to Julie.</p><p>Julie jumped on the signal right away. “Sure! See you later Dad!” Julie called as she grabbed the small group of sodas and sports drinks and made her way to the door. Julie barely heard her dad call back to her as she exited the kitchen. Once outside, she saw Carrie waiting for her with a heavy tray of food. “Thanks for that,” Julie said quietly.</p><p>“Anytime,” Carrie replied, gently nudging Julie with her elbow as a show of support. “Now, let’s get these snacks to Flynn so she’ll teach us what is actually going on in Calculus.” </p><p>Laughing loudly, the girls made it back to the studio when they saw Flynn hovering over Reggie as he held something to his face that looked like a reddish rag. Both girls stopped laughing and stared in shock when Reggie pulled away the rag to show a large and painful-looking bruise, blooming on the side of his face.</p><p>“Oh, hey girls! What’s up?” Reggie asked brightly, apparently unaware of the damage done to the side of his face. “Mind if I just hang here for a while?”</p>
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<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Alex III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex was less than pleased. First, Reggie gets some weird call from his parents, demanding he come home. (From what he could glean from the overheard conversation and Reggie’s attitude following said conversation, the Peters were fighting again over something stupid and had demanded Reggie come home to settle it.) Then, Emily comes in and ‘asks’ Alex to go home so she and Mitch could ‘talk’ to Luke. Again. And now, his phone was being blown up by Flynn, Carrie, and Julie (how they got his number, he still wasn’t entirely sure), telling him to come to the studio behind Julie’s house.</p><p>Annoyed at the mere prospect, considering Alex was walking around Hollywood and <em>didn’t have a car</em>, Alex started trying to figure out how to get there. Forgetting to pay attention to his surroundings, Alex scrolled through his contact list for a possible ride as he walked when he heard a sudden loud shout behind him. Without enough time to react, Alex was knocked down to the hard concrete.</p><p>Alex groaned and slowly got back up, taking an inventory of himself to ensure nothing was broken when he heard asking, “Are you okay, Hotdog?” Looking up, Alex saw Willie already standing and offering a hand up (which Alex took as he felt his face flush red against his dearest wishes). “Hotdog?” Willie asked again once Alex was up, and Alex realized he never answered Willie the first time (to his immense horror).</p><p>“Yeah,” Alex squeaked out before coughing and trying again. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Alex nearly fainted with relief when he sounded marginally normal. (The last thing he wanted to do was make things weird with Willie, though he thought it was a little late for that after the events of gym class.) Trying to look normal, Alex shoved his hands into his pockets in his jeans.</p><p>“That’s good,” Willie smiled before leaning forward to give a full-belly laugh with his hands on his torso as if to keep his stomach from flopping out onto the ground. “We <em>have</em> to stop meeting like this,” Willie teased at Alex’s confused look.</p><p>Alex gave a weak laugh before adding drily, “Well, if you have any ideas, I’m all ears.” Alex’s left hand came and scratched the back of his neck.</p><p>“Yeah, about that,” Willie said nervously, “I had this idea that-” Willie was interrupted by his phone going off again.</p><p>Alex, embarrassed by the ill-timing, quickly checked his phone to see more messages (this time from Luke) insisting he gets to Julie’s as soon as possible. Cursing his bad luck, Alex sighed and turned back to Willie. “I have to go,” he said abruptly, causing Willie’s face to fail. Only slightly panicking (for Alex at least), Alex started immediately to wave his hands in front of him. “Nononono, not like that,” Alex insisted. “You see, I had lunch with these girls earlier for my friend, Reggie (he’s our bassist), and now they’re texting me, saying I need to go to Julie’s place for some reason, and now my other friend, Luke (he plays guitar) is texting me, and I <em>really</em> need to go.” Alex winced slightly and internally sighed at his ramblings. “Sorry, for unloading all that, but I really need to go,” Alex apologized before turning to leave.</p><p>When Alex tried to take a step, a hand on his elbow restricted him. Turning back around, he found Willie with a concerned look on his face. “Do you need a ride? My jeep is just around the corner,” Willie said, taking an extra step towards Alex that made his head feel a bit dizzy.</p><p>“Uh, okay, yeah, sure,” Alex stammered out, not totally sure what was going on, too confused by the texts he was getting from the girls and Luke and proximity to Willie. As they walked, side by side, to Willie’s car, Willie’s hand slid down his arm to his hand, and Alex felt a goofy smile slide onto his face. </p><p>As Alex navigated and Willie drove their way to Julie’s house, they made small talk, mostly about Alex’s band and their next gig but also Willie’s skateboarding and his art classes at school. Willie even invited Alex to come to see his work on one of the school’s Open House Nights. </p><p>When they got there, Alex totally expected Willie to leave, but Willie followed him as he made his way to the studio. When they accidentally met eyes and paused halfway up the drive to the studio, Alex surprised himself when he allowed the eye contact to last long enough for them to share a soft smile before looking away, blushing and flustered. Alex cleared his throat and looked forward as he continued the march to the studio.</p><p>“Okay, what’s so important-” Alex said as he pulled open the doors to the studio, only stopping in the middle of his sentence when he saw Reggie’s face. “What happened?” Alex worried loudly as he ran forward to his friend as Reggie sat on the couch.</p><p>“Alex,” Reggie groaned, pushing Alex’s hands away when he tried to get a better look at the ugly taking up a decent amount of his face. “It’s -”</p><p>“Do <em>not</em> say it’s fine,” Luke said angrily from across the room. Looking over, Alex saw that Luke was throwing darts at a dartboard, missing widely, and Alex winced. (It was never a good sign whenever Luke was literally vibrating with energy. It was always worse when that energy happened to be anger.)</p><p>“Reggie, what happened?” Alex asked gently but sternly, making sure to look Reggie in the eyes when he asked. Suddenly, a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a red dishtowel was pushed into Reggie’s hands and onto his face. Looking to the right of Reggie, Alex saw Julie with Carrie not too far behind.</p><p>“Hey Alex,” she said calmly if a bit awkwardly. She wore a smile that seemed to say ‘I’m-sorry-we’re-meeting-this-way-please-don’t-take-it-out-on-me-I’m-doing-the-best-I-can.’</p><p>“Uh, yeah, sorry about … all … this,” Alex stammered, making general hand motions as if to apologize for the entire situation. (Alex tended to apologize for the entire situation when anxious.)</p><p>“Oh, no,” Julie waved off. “Don’t even worry about it.” (Apparently, Julie was a kindred spirit to Alex.) </p><p>After giving Julie an awkward but nice smile, Alex turned his attention back to the matter at hand: the huge bruise on <em>Reggie’s <strong>face</strong></em>. “Reggie?” Alex prompted, trying to get him to say something.</p><p>Reggie looked away and sighed petulantly. When he finally looked back to Alex, he sighed again and took the peas away from his face. He was about to speak again when Carrie reached over and placed the peas in his hand back on his face. She shot Alex a fond smile, like they were sharing some inside joke (like ‘oh-<em>Reggie</em>’). </p><p>Alex shot her a grateful smile (as if to say ‘don’t-get-me-started’) before turning back to Reggie. “Well?” Alex demanded.</p><p>“It’s just,” Reggie started before pausing to sigh and look up. “My parents were having this fight and it was getting really heated and I was just <em>so over it</em> because they were making me miss band practice when my mom picked up this vase and-”</p><p>“What!” exclaimed Luke, throwing a dart widely off-target, only narrowly missing a flower pot. Alex glared at Luke when he interrupted, but said nothing, knowing Reggie would resume.</p><p>“It’s not that bad!” Reggie protested. “This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it was a mistake anyway! Mom was trying to get at Dad, and I just … I got in the middle. Okay?” Reggie looked like he wanted to let the ground swallow him up. </p><p>“Reggie, you don’t actually think this is your fault, do you?” asked Alex, moving to the side to hug his friend if need be. When Reggie just shook his head in something akin to disbelief, Alex latched onto his friend and whispered calming things in his ear, having noticed the warning signs for Reggie’s tears.</p><p>“That’s it! I say we go over there and make them pay!” Luke ranted. He took a few steps (a surprisingly eager Flynn behind him with a feral smile) before Alex stopped him with another glare.</p><p>“You’re not going to quote ‘go over there, and make them pay’ Luke. These Reggie’s parents, not some playground bully!” Alex scolded. Luke gave an angry look but went back to his crazy dart throwing.</p><p>“Can we just forget about this?” Reggie begged his friends, once again taking the peas off his face.</p><p>“No,” Carrie declared as she reached over to force Reggie to hold the peas to his face once, “we cannot.” Carrie stared Reggie down with a blank and expectant look, her arms crossed daintily across her chest.</p><p>“Carrie-” Reggie started, wincing at the impending fight though Alex watched with breath bated with anticipation and anxiety. (He didn’t know what Reggie’s relationship with Carrie was like exactly, but he could tell it was important. He hoped they would be alright after this.)</p><p>“Just tell me you aren’t planning on actually staying there,” demanded Carrie as she fixed Reggie with a stubborn look.</p><p>“It’s not that simple,” Reggie tried. Alex shot his friend a disbelieving look. Yeah, he could understand wanting to be home, and it might take some juggling, but there had to be better options than this. Clenching his hands, Alex fought not to speak up and agree with Carrie. (Reggie tended to shut down when cornered like that.) Some light tugging on his left hand led Alex to look back to find Willie watching him closely, almost as if he was asking if Alex was okay. (He would be so long as Willie didn't let go.)</p><p>“It is that simple. Ray opened the studio to you. I’m sure if you explain what happened he would let you move in,” Carrie insisted, a single hand making gestures around her to articulate her points as she desired. It was pretty awe-inspiring if Alex was honest. (It was then he decided he liked this girl.)</p><p>“I don’t want to intrude,” Reggie said, an undercurrent of frustration laced through his voice, though Carrie didn’t make a move to step down. If anything, she looked more defiant and eager, as if the prospect of proving herself right excited her.</p><p>“You wouldn’t be intruding though,” Julie piped up just as Carrie was going to respond. She looked a little regretful for stopping Carrie but she carried on. “I know Carlos would love it if you were to move it. Something about a ghost chef?” Julie teased half-heartedly. Reggie gave a soft rueful smile before Carrie reached and placed a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“You were there for me when I was in a bad place,” Carrie said with full intention, leaning down so she could be eye-level with Reggie. “Let me be there for you now when you go talk to Ray.”</p><p>“Why would he need to talk to Ray?” asked a new voice. Alex, so wrapped up in the moment, didn’t notice the Hispanic man in his forties as he walked in. Alex saw the concern fill the man’s face as he took in Reggie’s face. “Guys, what happened?” </p><p>“Uh, Ray?” Reggie started hesitantly, sending a shaky look at Carrie. Alex noticed Carrie squeezed Reggie’s shoulder in response. “Can I stay for a while?”</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Flynn III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry if this update doesn't make as much sense. I got my wisdom teeth out recently, and am in a lot of pain.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Flynn did her best to keep calm when Reggie walked into the studio, looking like he had gotten into a fight. He had paused at the sight of Flynn standing in the studio, completely silent, before Flynn jumped into action. </p><p>“Go sit on the couch,” Flynn ordered before turning around and getting a washcloth from the bathroom in the back and wetting it with the coldest water the sink would produce. Once she placed it on his bruise, Reggie gave an awkward smile in thanks. “Let me take a look at it,” Flynn demanded which Reggie reluctantly let happen when Flynn pushed his face into his personal space.</p><p>“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you can be really pushy,” Reggie said matter-of-factly. Flynn shrugged. He wasn’t wrong, after all.</p><p>“You’ll thank me later,” Flynn said through grit teeth. The bruise was looking bad, and it wasn’t even that old. Dark blue and purple already were beginning to settle on Reggie’s face, making Flynn worry. When Carrie and Julie showed up just a few seconds after Flynn managed to convince Reggie to hold the washcloth to his face, she nearly cried in relief (only to be nearly overwhelmed when Reggie took off the washcloth).</p><p>“Oh my gosh! What happened?!” Julie yelled at the sight of the already huge bruise.</p><p>“It’s not that bad,” Reggie insisted with a cheery smile. “Honestly, I’ve had worse.” Flynn didn’t know if he was trying to make a joke, but she could tell from the look Carrie pinned him with, Reggie wasn’t getting out of any of this easily.</p><p>“Reggie, it’s bad,” Carrie said blandly though she looked pissed off. Carrie quickly took one of the drinks Julie was carrying and handed it to Reggie, only to stop him from opening it. “It’s for your face, not your thirst,” she said pointedly.</p><p>“Do you need anything? Is there someone you want us to call?” Julie asked worriedly, but Reggie just waved her off while the three girls seemed to flutter around the studio in an attempt to make Reggie more comfortable.</p><p>“I’ll be fine by tomorrow,” Reggie said firmly. “No need to worry anyone.” Flynn rolled her eyes and heard Carrie loudly scoff. Reggie was fooling no one with the tough guy act.</p><p>“I’m going to text Alex and Luke,” Flynn announced, pulling out her phone. She had just sent off the first text to Luke when her phone had vanished from her grasp. Blinking, Flynn eventually looked up to see Reggie looking down at her phone. “You did not just take my phone out of my hand,” Flynn said calmly, holding out her hand in a saintly gesture of ‘give-it-back-now-and-all-is-forgiven.’</p><p>“How did you have time to send off a text!” Reggie exclaimed in despair. He was looking down at the phone in a panic when Flynn cleared her throat. Dejectedly, Reggie returned the phone to Flynn’s hand. “Sorry,” he mumbled as collapsed on the couch.</p><p>“Just keep that rag on your face,” Flynn replied snappily. She looked down and saw that Patterson had already responded and was on his way. She was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he responded, but she wasn’t going to complain.</p><p>“I just texted Alex. I’m going to get some frozen peas,” Julie announced, looking a little frantic. She looked around as if making sure that’s all she needed, and then turned and marched out the studio door up to the house.</p><p>“I’m going to distract Ray for the moment. No need to get him all worked up if this is nothing,” Carrie said though she sent a look to Reggie that showed she totally expected to be filled in upon her arrival.</p><p>As Carrie left, Reggie let out a quiet sigh. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I don’t mean to be a bother, but Ray said I could stay here if I needed to get out of the house for a little and that nobody really came out here anyway. If I knew you guys would be in here, ...”</p><p>Flynn sighed and looked at Reggie. It was obvious that he was embarrassed by all the ‘trouble’ he seemed to have caused (and while true it was unsettling to see Reggie ‘I-am-a-golden-retriever’ Peters with a huge bruise on the side of his face, no one could blame Reggie). “Reggie, it’s really no big deal. We’re happy to help,” Flynn said carefully, observing Reggie as he stared forlornly at the ceiling from his place on the couch. “Reggie, what happened?”</p><p>For the huge wince Reggie gave, you would think Flynn gave him that bruise. “I don’t really feel like talking about it,” Reggie said eventually, a painful look on his face. It worried Flynn that Reggie was so reluctant to talk about it, but she just gave him a sad smile and rubbed his arm. "Do you think Carrie's mad at me?" he asked quietly like he was scared of the answer.</p><p>Blinking owlishly at him, Flynn considered her answer carefully before sighing. "We're all mad, Reggie," Flynn stated plainly, "but we're not mad at you. I know you don't want to talk about it, and I get it, I really do, but we just need to be sure it's not something to worried about."</p><p>"It's not! I promise!" Reggie groaned petulantly. It broke Flynn's heart how much like a sad little kid he looked like in that moment.</p><p>Just then, Luke came storming in, a bike helmet still in his hands as he walked in. As soon as he spotted Reggie, worry and shock splashed across Luke’s face. “Dude!” Luke exclaimed, moving closer to Reggie. “What happened?”</p><p>“Luke,” Reggie groaned, pushing the overexcited teen away. Reggie sat up on the couch, seemingly content to memorize the carpet on the floor. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said finally, his voice suspiciously quiet.</p><p>Luke looked like he wanted to argue more but he just stood up angrily and started pacing, muttering about Alex as he did. Soon, he found Julie’s old dartboard and started throwing the darts with reckless abandon at the board. It was then that Flynn started to think that Reggie got his bruise through less than accidental means.</p><p>Soon after Luke arrived, Alex walked in the door with Willie, a long-haired skater-dude she knew through passing. Judging from the way Willie hovered slightly awkwardly behind Alex, Flynn was willing to bet Willie had been with Alex when got the call and had come, not knowing what he was walking into and unable (or more like unwilling from the unconscious fidgets Willie made from time to time as if he wanted to grab Alex’s hand) to leave.</p><p>Carrie and Julie slid in with the peas after Alex showed up, and Julie pushed the peas into Reggie’s hand. As Julie and Alex exchanged unpleasant pleasantries, Flynn watched as Carrie slid up closer to Reggie. Whenever Reggie tried to remove the peas from his face, Carrie would correct Reggie with a pointed look and a stern hand.</p><p>“Well?” Alex demanded, and Flynn was snapped back to the moment. She looked around and saw everyone keyed into Reggie and what he was about to say with various emotions displayed. Julie and Willie looked the most worried, while Carrie and Alex regarded Reggie calmly, and Luke did nothing to hide his anger. With this in mind, Flynn turned to Reggie and tried to present a friendly and supportive face.</p><p>“It’s just,” Reggie started before pausing to sigh and look up at the ceiling again. (Flynn thought it was to stop himself from crying in frustration.) “My parents were having this fight and it was getting really heated and I was just <em>so over it</em> because they were making me miss band practice when my mom picked up this vase and-”</p><p>“What!” screamed Luke, and Flynn wanted to strangle the boy when Reggie winced at Luke’s reaction. Thankfully, Luke got himself under control soon, and Reggie was allowed to continue. (In the corner of her eye, Flynn saw Carrie grit her teeth and tighten her fists.)</p><p>“It’s not that bad!” Reggie protested, and Flynn barely held back a wince, especially as Reggie continued. “This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it was a mistake anyway! Mom was trying to get at Dad, and I just … I got in the middle. Okay?” Reggie looked down at the floor and avoided eye-contact with everyone as he finished his explanation.</p><p>“Reggie, you don’t actually think this is your fault, do you?” asked Alex, moving to the side of Reggie not taken up by Carrie. When Reggie just shook his head in something akin to disbelief, Alex latched onto his friend and started to whisper in his ear, seemingly trying to calm his friend. (Flynn felt like doing the same as Carrie momentarily looked lost next to Reggie, not knowing how to comfort him other than placing a small hand in between his shoulders beneath Alex’s arm.)</p><p>“That’s it! I say we go over there and make them pay!” Luke ranted. He took a few steps before Alex stopped him with another glare though Flynn already on board. (She had a cousin who worked on cars and knew how to royally mess the Peters' care. She was thinking baloney and Jolly Ranchers.)</p><p>“You’re not going to quote ‘go over there, and make them pay’ Luke. These Reggie’s parents, not some playground bully!” Alex scolded. Luke gave an angry look but went back to his crazy dart throwing.</p><p>Flynn turned back to Reggie in time to see the infuriating sight of him taking off the peas again. “Can we just forget about this?” Reggie begged his friends. </p><p>“No,” Carrie declared as she reached over to force Reggie to hold the peas to his face once again, “we cannot.” Carrie stared Reggie down with a blank and expectant look, her arms crossed daintily across her chest. (And while Flynn totally realized the importance of the situation, she couldn’t help but mentally applaud her girl for keeping it so composed in the face of such a trying situation. She knew how hard it was to keep Reggie’s rag on his face from personal experience.)</p><p>“Carrie-” Reggie started, and Flynn felt a small stab of pain as she felt Reggie fall into a fight with Carrie. (She had been on the wrong side of Carrie on more than one occasion and knew that when Carrie wanted something, she tended to be able to talk her way into basically anything, and that hurt sometimes.)</p><p>“Just tell me you aren’t planning on actually staying there,” demanded Carrie as she fixed Reggie with a stubborn look, and Flynn knew Carrie had won. (It also didn’t escape Flynn that Carrie called Reggie’s home ‘there.’)</p><p>“It’s not that simple,” Reggie tried. Flynn felt for him. Her parents had divorced when she was much younger, and while they were on good terms now, she was more than happy she was too young to remember the fighting (if stories from both her parents and extended family were to be believed). Feeling like your home is a battleground must be rough.</p><p>“It is that simple. Ray opened the studio to you. I’m sure if you explain what happened he would let you move in,” Carrie insisted, a single hand making gestures around her to articulate her points as she desired. A bit surprised, Flynn looked over to Julie and saw that she was not (if not enthusiastic about this particular plan) totally put off by the idea. Flynn didn’t know if it was because of Julie’s super-generous heart or the fact that Reggie might actually have made a place in the Molina’s family already.</p><p>“I don’t want to intrude,” Reggie said, an undercurrent of frustration laced through his voice, and Flynn held her breath as Carrie started her wind-up to finish off her argument, but Reggie got off lucky.</p><p>“You wouldn’t be intruding though,” Julie piped up just as Carrie was going to respond, and Flynn saw Julie almost shoot Carrie an apologetic look for cutting into her argument. “I know Carlos would love it if you were to move it. Something about a ghost chef?” Julie teased half-heartedly. Reggie gave a soft rueful smile before Carrie reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“You were there for me when I was in a bad place,” Carrie said with full intention, leaning down so she could be eye-level with Reggie. It gave them a slight intimate vibe, and Flynn was sure that there was something real between Reggie and Carrie. She just hoped this situation wouldn’t prove too heavy for the new courtship. “Let me be there for you now when you go talk to Ray.”</p><p>“Why would he need to talk to Ray?” asked a new voice. Spinning around, Flynn saw Ray enter the garage and slowly take in his surroundings.  “Guys, what happened?” Ray asked cautiously.</p><p>“Uh, Ray?” Reggie started hesitantly. Flynn thought he leaned a bit closer to Carrie, especially when she squeezed his shoulder. “Can I stay for a while?”</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Reggie III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie was not happy with the situation at all. For no reason, other than they could, his parents had decided to ramp up their fighting in the last couple of days which in turn made their fighting more and more noticeable to other people. He wasn’t blind to the sympathetic and pitying looks he got from some neighbors whenever he walked home. Reggie was pretty sure Ray knew and that was the only reason he didn’t kick him out when he came over, and now, Carrie found out, something Reggie never wanted to happen.</p><p>“Reggie, what happened?” Ray asked calmly, and Reggie really wanted to lie. He wanted to say that he fell or walked into a low-hanging doorway or basically anything else, but he also didn’t want to lie to Ray. So, with his head hung low and with the eyes of all his friends on him, he softly explained that his parents’ fighting had gotten out of control again and he had gotten caught in the crossfire. </p><p>Occasionally, Reggie felt Carrie squeeze his arm or rub one of his shoulders, but never did she leave his side. It felt really nice to have her there, but it was also so much. Like, he really liked Carrie, and he knew she liked him, but he still wanted her to see the best parts of him. He wasn’t really ready to test how much Carrie actually liked him.</p><p>“Thank you for telling me, <em>mijo</em>. I know that took a lot from you,” Ray said quietly as he sat on the coffee table in front of Reggie. Ray looked at Reggie sadly before seemingly making up his mind and nodding. Reggie held his breath, waiting what seemed an eternity to see what Ray would do.  “Would you like to stay here?” Ray asked cautiously.</p><p>Blinking, Reggie coughed on some air in disbelief. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sure that Ray would have any problem with Reggie staying there, but to asked so outright and so soon … It warmed Reggie’s heart to be so cared for. It had been a while since anyone had acted so parental with him.</p><p>“Uh, yeah,” Reggie managed, nodding. “Yeah, if I could stay in the garage-”</p><p>“I was thinking something a bit more permanent,” Ray interrupted. Looking confused, Reggie tilted his head as Ray looked around the studio in regret before standing up. Ray walked over to Julie and whispered in her ear. They traded a few looks between the two of them before Julie smiled and nodded. “Reggie, why don’t we go inside and talk about this with Carlos?” Ray suggested with his arm around Julie.</p><p>“Can the rest of us wait here?” Luke spoke up, a very tentative look on his face, and Ray was kind enough to nod.</p><p>As the three of them walked out of the studio, Reggie saw a few reassuring smiles on his way out, but the most important to him was a supportive smile he got from Carrie, which let him hope he hadn’t messed up everything between them with his messed-up family. Ray led them up to the house to the dining table where they had pizza that first night with Carrie and Flynn.</p><p>Taking a seat at the table, while Julie ran to get Carlos, Reggie couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.</p><p>“Put the peas back on your face, <em>mijo</em>,” Ray said gently, reaching over to hold the peas to Reggie’s face. “Do you feel dizzy at all?” he asked. Reggie shook his head, thankful that he hadn’t experienced any signs of a concussion. “Good.”</p><p>Just as Ray finished, Carlos and Julie came down the stairs. “Reggie!” Carlos called excitedly, only to pause when he saw the bruise on his face. “What happened?” Carlos asked in confusion while Julie continued to herd him to the table.</p><p>“That’s what we have to talk about,” Ray answered calmly, taking his own seat at the table. “Something has come up, and Reggie might be coming to stay with us.” Ray paused to look between his children for any sign of discontent “Would that be okay?”</p><p>“Yes!” Carlos cheered. “We could catch the ghost chef!” Carlos was nearly vibrating with excitement in his seat, but Reggie was more worried about Julie’s reaction anyway.</p><p>“I’m okay with it,” Julie shrugged after Carlos, a small smile on her lips. Julie turned to Reggie and directly addressed him when she said, “We would love it if you were to move in with us, Reggie.”</p><p>“And since you would be here permanently, maybe we set up the guest room instead of the studio,” Ray spoke up suddenly, shocking Reggie completely. It was one thing to offer the studio, but the guest room, in the house, was something else.</p><p>“Guys,” Reggie started, a bit choked up. Almost in one motion, the Molinas got up from their different places and rushed Reggie, the impromptu group hug breaking the dam in Reggie’s eyes. Reggie cried a few tears into Ray’s shoulder before pulling back to give them a huge smile. “Thanks!”</p><p>As they broke apart, Ray waved off Julie and Carlos for a moment. “Reggie,” Ray said seriously, “I know you don’t want to talk about what happened tonight, but we’ll have to talk about it eventually.” Ray paused and took a deep sigh, and Reggie felt panic rise up in him. “What happened should not have happened, and it will not happen again so long as you live here, but we are going to have to talk to your parents eventually.” </p><p>“Maybe not,” Reggie blurted out. “I know where all my documents are, and my parents might not even notice I’m gone since I turn eighteen in a few months.” Reggie saw Ray flinch, and it occurred to Reggie that nothing he said was a lie. He could go to his house, gather his things, and leave, and they wouldn’t even blink an eye.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Reggie, that’s the case,” Ray said eventually before hugging Reggie close to him. Reggie tensed at first before letting himself relax into Ray and return the man’s hug.</p><p>“Thanks for this,” Reggie whispered. “I know we don’t really know each other, so-”</p><p>“Reggie,” Ray laughed, pulling back. “You’ve lived on the other side of the fence for as long as we’ve been here. Don’t think I don’t remember that kid that used to come over to help my wife weed the garden.” Ray ruffled Reggie’s hair, and Reggie suddenly remembered sneaking over when he was about ten-years-old to help a pretty lady with wide hair and a pretty voice tend a garden. It was during the last days of Reggie’s ignoring his parents’ failing marriage, and Reggie liked to pretend that his parents were happy which was most easily done away from home.</p><p>Before Reggie could respond, Ray shooed him off to the studio, citing his friends probably wanting to know what happened. Stumbling off to the studio, he barely had time to catch himself from walking straight into Carrie, her facial expression a strange mix of nervousness and expectancy. Looking down, Reggie saw Carrie’s fingers were picking at the dry skin around her nails.</p><p>“So? How did it go?” Carrie asked insistently. She seemed to almost bounce in anticipation.</p><p>“I’m going to move in with the Molinas,” Reggie said simply, and he instantly felt lighter. Saying it out loud somehow made it all easier to reconcile in his mind. He couldn’t help but smile at the idea of escaping all the constant fighting with his parents.</p><p>“Really?” Carrie smiled, already so happy to see Reggie so happy. When Reggie nodded, she partially squealed and jumped at Reggie. He happily caught her and laughed in her ear, smiling dopily as Carrie’s peach blossom shampoo filled his nose.</p><p>“That’s great, man!” Luke chimed in, and Reggie put Carrie down when Luke came in to tackle him in his own hug.</p><p>“I’m really happy for you Reggie,” Willie said, patting him on the back. “Let me know if you need help moving.” Reggie smiled at Willie, only to turn to Alex and wiggle his eyebrows which had Alex go from smiling to blushing bright red.</p><p>Laughing again, Reggie pulled away from Luke and Carrie and turned towards his old house. After a few moments of contemplation, Reggie nodded and said, “You free right now?”</p><p>He could sense their hesitancy, but he had made up his mind. As he made his way to his parents’ house (that’s all it was now, Reggie realized), no one asked him if he was sure. He simply walked in the front door and up the stairs to his room and started to pack his things. Once he packed one thing, he handed it off to one of his friends who ran it over to the Molinas. At one point, Carrie started pulling clothes on their hangers out of his closet only to fold them over her arm until she couldn’t hold any more, and she left with the clothes.</p><p>“What’s going on?” his father said, poking his head in at one point. He looked very uncertain as he took stock of the sight in front of him: five teenagers clearing out his son’s room.</p><p>Reggie looked his father right in the eyes and said, “I’m leaving,” before going back to packing. Reggie didn’t know if he was relieved when his father just nodded glumly and walked away, but he did know that was all he felt when he carried the last of his things out of that house. He didn’t say goodbye to his mother though she watched him leave without a word. In a lot of ways, Reggie wished them the best. He hoped that maybe this pushed them to finally get a divorce. But ultimately, Reggie found didn’t care either way. He no longer had anything to say to them.</p><p>“Hey Reggie,” Carrie said softly to him as they made the final walk to the Molinas. “How are you feeling?”</p><p>Reggie smiled wide at Carrie and carelessly stung an arm around her shoulders. “I’m feeling really happy,” Reggie decided with a chuckle. Carrie laughed with him and reached around his waist to lean into him. </p><p>Maybe, when he was older and had time to heal from his parents' toxic relationship, he would reach out and work on building a relationship with his parents, but that was too far down the line to actually see. For now, he was done with them and would focus on his own life: school, the band, his friends, the Molinas. </p><p>By the time they were back, Julie and Carlos had finished prepping the guest room which would now be his room.  (They had even donated a few wall-hangings though Ray made a point to say they were temporary until they could get him his own.) Slowly, he and the boys put away his room, stopping many times to joke around. (The girls actually did have to get to Calculus, Flynn insisted, though the way Carrie blushed about itsuddenly was weird.) By the time dinner rolled around, Reggie’s things were all put away. </p><p>“Guys, will you be staying for dinner?” Ray asked, poking in to check on their progress. Luke, having never met a food he didn’t like (and that <em>includes</em> the ‘street dog incident’ as Alex called it), took the excuse to not go home for another hour or so. Alex gave a nervous smile as he said he would stay for dinner only to frown lightly when Willie said he had to meet his uncle for dinner. Coming down from his room (and yes, Reggie sighed dreamily as he thought of it as <em>his room</em>), he saw Carrie and Julie setting the table as Flynn filled glasses with ice water and handed them off to Carlos to put on the table. The whole scene made Reggie feel warm.</p><p>“It’s gonna be a bit of a tight fit,” Ray called from the kitchen as he left the finishing touches on the chili dinner he had managed to whip up for everyone. “But if we leave the chili and the fixings in the kitchen, I think we’ll manage. Everyone, wash up,” Ray said as he turned to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. </p><p>During dinner, the gang laughed and joked and talked like everything was normal despite the fact that they had eight people at a four-person table. Instead of being awkward and cramped, it seemed more intimate and celebratory than anything else. Everyone was talking happily about this, that, or some other thing, pausing only to take infrequent bites of chili. For his first night with the Molinas, it wasn’t bad. </p><p>After dinner, Reggie headed out to the studio with the rest of the teenagers. Ray had given them the warning that they couldn’t have a sleepover in the middle of the school week, so they were mostly winding down from dinner before people started to take off for home. He was smiling at something Luke had said that caused Alex to blush when Carrie slid in next to Reggie and calmly held his hand.</p><p>Reggie was happy to hold hands with Carrie. He was really happy with the way their relationship was going, but he still felt the need to hit pause for a second. Taking a deep breath, Reggie turned to Carrie and quietly asked, “Can I talk to you outside?” He tried to keep his tone light, but Carrie’s face still pinched in irritation as she reluctantly nodded.</p><p>When he turned to face her outside, she seemed to be chewing on the inside of her cheeks as she regarded him uneasily. “What did you want to talk about?” she asked warily.</p><p>“Is this okay?” Reggie blurted out before wincing. He immediately tried to over-correct, leading to a basic word-vomit. Ranting, Reggie started to pace in the driveway. “I mean, you don’t think we’re moving a bit fast? I have no problem with how fast we’re going, but you just broke up with Nick, and you might want to take some time for yourself-”</p><p>“Reggie,” Carrie interjected calmly, now smiling softly. She had reached out and grabbed Reggie’s wrist, making him look at her with wide eyes. With Carrie so close, Reggie noticed that her dark brown eyes seemed to shimmer in their depths. It was seemingly a neglectable fact, but in that moment, it was everything to Reggie. “I’m fine with how things are going.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Reggie asked eagerly, absolutely over the moon he took the time to check in with Carrie.</p><p>“Yeah,” Carrie sighed happily. Taking a step back, Carrie scrutinized him with an amused look. “Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked flirtatiously.</p><p>Reggie rubbed the back of his neck and dug his big toe into the ground in front of him. “It’s just since you just got out of a relationship, I know that some people might talk-” Reggie gave lamely.</p><p>“Yeah, I don’t really care what people might say behind my back, and I doubt anyone would have the gall to say anything to my face,” Carrie said haughtily. She tossed her hair with a laugh before she continued. “I think you know that too, so what’s really on your mind?” she asked with a pointed look.</p><p>“You’ll laugh,” Reggie mumbled, leaning on the studio door and fighting off his blush. </p><p>“Probably,” Carrie laughed as she came closer until she was back in front of him. “But I promise that I’ll always laugh because of how cute you are,” she teased, her hands on his shoulders. His hands came up reflexly to rest on Carrie’s waist which only invited her to step closer with her killer smile. (Reggie just then decided that he didn’t care what Freddie Mercury meant, “Killer Queen” was about Carrie.)</p><p>“I want … to woo … you,” Reggie said eventually, face aflame in his own embarrassment, trying not to look at Carrie as she started to laugh at him.</p><p>“You want to woo me?” she asked quietly. Looking down, Reggie saw a soft look on Carrie’s face. Suddenly, Carrie reached up and kissed his cheek. “You’re really sweet Reggie,” she said quietly as she wrapped her arms around Reggie’s neck. When Carrie pulled back, Reggie tried to give her a swoon-worthy grin but ended up giving her a bashful smile. “One week.”</p><p>“What?” Reggie asked dumbly, blinking in confusion when Carrie’s smile grew wider.</p><p>“That’s how long you have to woo me,” Carrie challenged, her smile wild and exciting.</p><p>“Or what?” Reggie asked again. Suddenly, his hands felt heavy and he felt dizzy. Her energy was officially intoxicating to him.</p><p>“Or be known as a phony,” Carrie said casually. Leaning closer so that Carrie’s face dangled only mere inches away from his own. “This is your chance, Romeo. You said you wanted to woo me, so woo me.” Reggie felt sparks ricochet throughout his body at Carrie’s proverbial thrown gauntlet.</p><p>“When does my week start?” Reggie asked in anticipation.</p><p>“Tomorrow. Too soon?” Carrie replied innocently, at which Reggie laughed.</p><p>“Not soon enough,” Reggie said before setting Carrie back a step. Holding out his right hand while his left was held behind him, Reggie gave her a winning smile. “Prepare yourself, Ms. Wilson,” Reggie teased, finally getting into the spirit of this, their little game.</p><p>“Oh, I’m so sure, Mr. Peters,” Carrie teased right back with a matching smile as she reached out and shook Reggie’s hand. Soon after, Flynn came out and asked Carrie for a ride home. They shared a look as they walked down the driveway, and Reggie started to plan for tomorrow’s wooing of Carrie Wilson. He couldn’t wait.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Carrie III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Carrie woke up the next morning with a smile and bounds of nervous energy. Being a distinct morning person, Carrie amazed herself by waking up more than half an hour before her alarm. Too nervous and excited to stay in bed, Carrie launched into getting herself ready for the day. Stepping into her closet, Carrie wondered what she would wear. </p><p>She shouldn’t look too good as she <em>did</em> just get out of a relationship, and she didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard. That said, Carrie didn’t really <em>do</em> drab, even when she was only staying around the house. It just wasn’t her. </p><p>In the end, she decided on something a bit softer with jeans and a dressy flowy blouse. When matched with her usual subtle makeup and quick brushing of her hair, she looked great but not in a stand-out sort of way. To herself, Carrie joked it was like instead of <em>Vogue,</em> Carrie was being featured in <em>Better Homes and Gardens</em>. After having a quick laugh at her stupid joke, Carrie checked her phone to see a message from Julie.</p><p>
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  <code>7:10am<br/>u have to come over</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code><p>
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<p></p><dd>
  <code>7:11am<br/>Reggie made brekkie</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code><p>A little confused and intrigued, Carrie made arrangements for Flynn to meet them at the Molinas and made her own way there. Carrie found the Molinas happily buzzing around their dining table over what Carrie assumed was Reggie’s version of breakfast. When Carrie saw Julie’s text, she assumed Reggie just made scrambled eggs, toast, and maybe some bacon for the Molinas. What she arrived at instead on the dining table was a spread fit more five-star restaurant than a normal morning at the Molinas. Delicately cut fruit sat creatively arranged in a bowl next to perfectly fried cubed potatoes in their own bowl. Crispy and evenly cooked bacon lay in a pile nearby, and fluffy pancakes called to her in a damn near siren’s song. Freshly squeezed orange juice sat in a pitcher on the end, though Carrie thought she saw strawberries bobbing up and down in the orange liquid.</p><p>“Well good morning,” Carrie called in surprise, a huge smile on her face as she made way to her spot at (in Carrie’s professional opinion) the marvelous breakfast feast.</p><p>“Good morning,” Ray returned around a sip of coffee, his face full of joy as he considered the bounty in front of them. “Reggie made all this,” he offered with a warm look, pride evident in his tone. </p><p>“Julie texted me,” Carrie responded to Ray before stealing a look at Reggie and promptly catching him looking at her. Reggie, despite being caught staring, just smiled at her as if to say ‘Well?’ “Color me impressed,” Carrie commented, careful to keep her smile to a light and teasing grin.</p><p>“Me too!” Carlos broke in, and Carrie shifted attention temporarily to the boy seated next to Reggie. Carlos was munching happily on some eggs and pancakes.</p><p>“If I knew it was going to be like this every day, I would have insisted Reggie move in with us years ago,” Julie piped up as she tucked into her breakfast.</p><p>“Okay, let’s not get too carried away,” Ray said in a tone that put to bed any ideas of the Molina siblings pressuring Reggie into becoming their permanent breakfast chef. Julie laughed though Carlos looked conspiratorially around the table.</p><p>“Well, I don’t mind doing this every so often, Ray,” Reggie said helpfully, and Carrie smiled. One of her favorite things about Reggie was how willing he was to help out. It was like he just genuinely wanted things to work out for the better.</p><p>“Careful not to give them too many ideas,” Flynn filled in as she made her way to the table. “Now what’s all-” Flynn cut off and went wide-eyed at the breakfast in front of her. “Who <em>made</em> all this?” Flynn asked, still standing and looking at the food in shock.</p><p>“Reggie did,” Carrie supplied happily. Flynn sent her a raised eye-brow and a teasing smile at that, but Carrie merely rolled her eyes at the antics of Flynn, just happy Flynn was acting friendly this morning. Once everyone had eaten their fill, the table was bare, with only a few strawberries and some orange juice being the survivors of the meal.</p><p>“That was delicious, Reggie,” Carrie said as she brought her dishes to the sink for Ray to wash.</p><p>“Thanks, Carrie,” Reggie said warmly as he followed her to the kitchen. After handing off their dishes, Reggie grabbed his backpack and left before the girls, shouting goodbyes over his shoulder as he walked out.</p><p>Scrunching her eyebrows in confusion, Carrie turned to Ray and asked, “Where’s Reggie going so early?”</p><p>Ray, instead of clearing up any confusion, just shrugged and said, “He said he had something to take care of.” Carrie hummed and considered Ray. On one hand, she knew him well enough to know when he was hiding something. (The man was just a smidge too earnest for secrets.) On the other, if the secret Ray was hiding (and it was), it couldn’t be anything bad. If anything, Carrie thought it might have something to do with his band. She knew they haven’t had practice in the last couple of days, maybe they wanted to make up for lost time. Either way, Ray was likely to report on Carrie, so Carrie just smiled and made her way upstairs to Julie’s room.</p><p>When she got to Julie’s room, she expected Julie to be putting the last touches on her look for the day while Flynn got her caught up on the latest gossip and insta posts. But expected the unexpected because not nearly twenty minutes after that glorious breakfast Carrie found Julie crying while Flynn tried to console her on Julie’s bed.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Carrie asked, completely focused on Julie as she made her way to the bed from the doorway.</p><p>Julie shook her head and smiled through the tears as she handed Carrie her cell phone. Looking down, Carrie saw that Julie had gotten a new message from Luke (who still didn’t know he was messaging Julie nor did Julie know she was messaging him). </p><p>
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<p></p><dd>
  <code>7:39am<br/>Just wanted u 2 no that i had the worst day yesterday and your song was the only thing that could make it better. Thnx 4 that.</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code><p>Carrie immediately knew what had happened, and she wanted to both slap and kiss Luke Patterson (slap because that could’ve really blown up in their faces and kiss because Carrie could tell this little text meant the world to Julie). Instead, Carrie hugged her friend tightly, letting Julie cry herself out against her shoulder. When Julie was done, Flynn and Carrie did some light makeup maneuvering to both make it look like Julie wasn’t wearing makeup but also cover the signs of tears. Once they were done, Carrie drove them to school and parked in their usual area (and pretended like she wasn’t consumed with curiosity as to where Reggie could be). </p><p>As the girls made their way to their lockers, Carrie noticed something taped to her locker door. Upon reaching her locker, Carrie saw that it was a small bouquet of red flowers. Smiling to herself, Carrie carefully took the bouquet off her locker door and took a deep breath through her nose, relishing the sugary sweet and slightly spicy scent.</p><p>“The lady at the store said they were carnations, and that they represent adoration,” said a male voice behind her, and Carrie smiled even wider as she turned to face Reggie.</p><p>“I love them,” she said, dipping her face low to get another whiff. She thought she saw Reggie gulp a little and blush, and giggled a little, glad she went with a looser blouse than usual if this was the result.</p><p>“I’m glad,” Reggie said sincerely with a small smile of his own. They stood there for a minute, smiling at each other like idiots before they simultaneously burst into giggles. </p><p>Carrie was the first to recover. Clearing her throat, Carrie turned around and started to gather the books she would need for her morning classes from her locker. “So,” she said, a smile evident in her tone, “is there where you went this morning after breakfast?” </p><p>“Yeah,” Reggie supplied eagerly. Stepping to the side, he leaned against the side of Carrie’s locker so that she had him in her line of view. “There’s this little bodega about halfway between here and the house. A real Mom &amp; Pop kind of place, serves the <em>best</em> Cuban sandwiches, but they sell flowers for ‘young lovers.’ It’s been their thing for years.” Reggie had placed air quotes around young lovers and Carrie laughed.</p><p>“Wow, sounds like quite the spot,” Carrie said in a flirty and impressed way. Reggie rolled his eyes at her, to which Carrie just shrugged in a way she hoped Reggie would find cute. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”</p><p>Reggie regarded her with a flirtatious grin. “Why, Ms. Wilson, are you asking me out on a <em>date</em>?” Reggie teased, leaning in close as if he was sharing a secret with her. </p><p>“Only if you don’t have plans to ask me later, <em>Mr. Peters</em>,” Carrie returned, before carefully setting her flowers inside her locker and shutting her door.</p><p>Reggie gasped dramatically, holding his arm to himself as if he were clutching at a string of pearls. “Of course I have plans,” Reggie whispered as if it was the most scandalous thing to consider otherwise, only breaking character when Carrie burst into laughter. “Can I walk you to Homeroom?” Reggie asked, already walking beside her down the hall.</p><p>“You won’t get in trouble?” Carrie asked, bumping his hip which Reggie responded to by curling his arm around her shoulders good-naturedly.</p><p>“Probably not, but you’re worth it anyway,” Reggie said happily. Carrie felt herself blush because there was no angle to his voice. He wasn’t trying to get something out of this, walking her to class. He wanted to walk her to class for himself, and not to get something down the line. He was romancing her for the sake of romancing her. </p><p>“Thank you,” Carrie said softly to Reggie, making her realize just how close they really were.</p><p>Reggie gave her a look out of the corner of his eye, smiling at her. “It’s true,” he said simply, and Carrie leaned her head on his shoulder as he walked her to her Homeroom. She didn’t even notice the way Nick watched how she and Reggie acted around each other.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Luke III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, yeah. I don't know if you all have noticed, but I had been cycling through six POVs (Julie, Luke, Carrie, Alex, Flynn, and Reggie), shuffling them when I finish a cycle. I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. I just don't see it as rewarding nor is it important to the story anymore. Plus, I want to experiment with other POVs. These six will be the main POVs, but don't be surprised if I focus on some more than others depending on the plot. Also, I have entered a really busy time of my education don't have as much free time anymore, so updates may not come as often or frequently as any of us would like. To add to this, my anxiety is taking on physical symptoms (namely digestional issues, a rash on my stomach, and the occasional fever). If anyone knows anything to help, please comment below.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luke would consider himself a good friend. He always encouraged his friends and tried to keep them in good spirits. He tried to be there for his friends as much as possible (though his own living situation was less than ideal for this). He knew he had been a little MIA since texting with CD Cinderella (Luke had to admit that the nickname was a bit catchy.), but he dropped that as soon as he heard about Reggie’s bruise.</p><p>Now, Reggie was living with the Molinas and flirting with the most popular girl in school, Luke couldn’t help but feel a little … protective. It’s not that the Molinas or Carrie did anything. It was just with flirting with Carrie came the constant watching. For you see, the ‘It’ couple of Los Felix High had not broken up too too long ago, and here was one half of said duo actively flirting with Reggie while the other half … kind of … stared? </p><p>Reggie, for the most part, didn’t notice, but Alex and Luke most certainly did. Suddenly, lacrosse players would glare at Reggie from the side suspiciously, and girls, girls who would never have given Reggie the time of day before, would come up and bat their eyelashes in attempts at flirting. (Luke didn’t know if Reggie was really oblivious or just uninterested in any other girl that wasn’t Carrie Wilson at this point. The boy was a little gone.) Alex and Luke tried to buffer as much as possible. Luke would stare down as many jocks as he could, and Alex would smoothly tell the girls that Reggie wasn’t interested. (It was decided that Alex would handle the girls after Luke accidentally sent one running down the hall crying.) But there was one thing that neither Luke nor Alex could really count on: Nick Danforth-Evans. Which brought Luke to the present moment.</p><p>He had been walking down the hall (He had been able to get out of his fifth-period Gym class to write because the teacher was very weirdly and intensely supportive of students’ goals. Something about the importance of ambition and goal-setting?) when he noticed a bouquet of what looked like over a dozen red roses taped to Carrie’s locker, complete with a handy note:</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Carrie,<br/>
We need to talk.<br/>
Xoxo,<br/>
Nick</p>
</blockquote><p>Luke’s first impulse was to rip it down and toss the flowers, but he hesitated. Standing there, Luke couldn’t help but feel a bit bad about it. Sure, Reggie was his friend, a friend who had been nursing a small crush over the years and had finally had his shot at said crush, but Carrie and Nick had a history spanning years. Maybe if they got back together now, Reggie could move on and avoid heartbreak altogether. But, on the other hand, Carrie had made it super clear that she was done with Nick…</p><p>As Luke contemplated the pros and cons of the situation, Carrie walked up.</p><p>“Did Reggie get me flowers again?” Carrie asked brightly, startling Luke. </p><p>Luke immediately jumped about a foot in the air and spun around to face Carrie. Standing between Carrie and her locker, Luke uselessly held out his arms to try and hide the bouquet from her. “Uh … well … uh,” Luke stammered out, looking at Carrie with a horrified look on his face.</p><p>“Don’t worry Luke,” Carrie said with a dreamy smile. “I think it’s sweet of him.” Carrie gently pushed Luke aside (who, being too shocked to do anything else, moved aside a few steps and waited for the fallout). “I will say roses seem a little-” Carrie dropped off when she saw the note on the flowers, and her expression lost all warmth as Carrie proceeded to absolutely glare at the flowers in her hand. “I see. These are <em>not</em> from Reggie.”</p><p>Luke knew she wasn’t asking a question, but he felt the need to answer. “Yeah,” he said, looking down at the floor.</p><p>Carrie hummed then said, “I know exactly what to do with these.” She shoved the roses at Luke like they burned her and spun on her heel and started towards the studio art classes, and Luke scrambled after her (feeling a little silly). Eventually, they made their way to a classroom with students working on large art projects, and Carrie knocked on the door. When the door opened, Carrie put on her best winning smile and spoke sweetly to the teacher. “Hi, I need William Covington please.”</p><p>Luke didn’t know what magic spell Carrie cast, but the teacher just smiled and nodded, and Willie was in front of them soon. Once the teacher retreated back inside the classroom, Willie smiled at the both of them. “Luke, Carrie,” he greeted. “What’s up?”</p><p>Without further prompting, Carrie gestured at the roses in Luke’s hands. “Do you want them?” she asked flippantly like it was completely normal to offer a person some red roses. “Nick taped them to my locker, and you know.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, and Willie nodded understandingly.</p><p>Turning to the flowers, Willie grew a smirk and said, “Yeah, I’ll take them off your hands.”</p><p>Carrie smiled back. “Perfect,” she purred. Turning to Luke, she nodded towards Willie, and Luke hurriedly handed them off. Turning back to Willie, she wore a grin that would make the Cheshire cat jealous. “Have fun! Use responsibly,” Carrie said as Willie held the flowers.</p><p>“Oh, I plan to,” Willie said conspiratorily. “Later.”</p><p>“See you in Government,” Carrie called as Willie returned to his class and closed the door.</p><p>“You know Willie?” Luke asked dumbly, not entirely sure what just happened.</p><p>“We take Government together. I wanted to switch seats after Nick and I broke up, and we ended up sitting together and becoming friends,” Carrie said simply before turning back down the hallway. Luke followed after her. For a few minutes, they walked along in silence before Carrie looked at Luke out of the corner of her eye and asked, “Are you going to tell Reggie about the flowers?”</p><p>Luke stopped, and Carrie followed suit. They stared at each other in the hallway, neither moving. “No,” Luke said eventually. “The way I see it, you handled it.”</p><p>“Thanks, that means a lot,” Carrie said with a friendly half-smile before she started walking down the hallway again with Luke by her side. “I want to tell him anyway. It’s not that there’s anything going on between me and Nick anymore, I just don’t want there to be questions about my commitment, you know? Like, I don’t want to be seen as hiding something.”</p><p>Luke nodded along with a smile on his face. Reggie had only had a handful of relationships, but those relationships all ended in disaster. Reggie had always been the one to over-commit, and that seemed to attract all the wrong kinds of people for some unholy reason, but Carrie seemed different. Better yet, Carrie seemed <em>good</em> for Reggie, made him happy the way Reggie made other people happy, something Luke couldn’t wait to share with Alex.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Carrie piped up, “before I forget, don’t tell Alex who we gave the flowers to.” That caught Luke’s attention, and his hand grabbed Carrie’s elbow so that he could face her.</p><p>“Why?” he asked quizically. (He even tilted his head to the side like a dog, a habit Alex had been trying and failing to break.)</p><p>Carrie wiggled her eyebrows, and her eyes flashed deviously. “Who do think Willie is going to give them to?” she asked.</p><p>The implication dawned on Luke, and he felt his eyes widen before he smiled widely at Carrie. “You, Carrie Wilson, are an absolute genius,” Luke gushed.</p><p>“I know,” Carrie replied primly before extracting her arm and almost dancing down the hall. Luke almost went to follow her when his phone went off. Looking down, Luke saw that his mystery girl had texted him.</p>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>2:34pm<br/>i kno i said i dont write anymore but i want to write this song for my friend</code>
  <br/>
</dd>
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>2:34pm<br/>can u help?</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Luke’s heart fully stopped in his chest. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. <em>She wanted to write a song. <strong>With him.</strong></em> His fingers typed out his response and sent it before he could really think about it.</p>
<p></p><div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:34pm<br/>when do we start?</code></dd><code><br/></code></div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Carrie IV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Carrie was pissed. No, she corrected herself, she was <em>annoyed</em>. Nick didn’t get to make her pissed anymore, but seriously, what was going on with him? Carrie knew he wasn’t over Julie, and she knew he was well-aware of her growing relationship with Reggie, so why was he all of a sudden taping expensive bouquets to her locker in a rather tacky replication of Reggie’s carnations?</p>
<p>Taking a few cleansing breaths, she walked back into her Chem class. She had already finished her busywork for the day, so she started to text Reggie.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:42pm<br/>I need 2 talk 2 u</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:42pm<br/>Nick tried 2 give me 🌹🌹 but i gave them away</code><br/></dd><br/></div>Carrie held her breath as she waited for Reggie to reply, her phone laid face down on the table. When it buzzed, she quickly slid it into her lap and looked at the text.
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>2:43pm<br/>R u ok?</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Smiling, Carrie realized she had nothing to worry about. Reggie, sweet respectful kind Reggie, would never hold anything against her. He just wanted her to be happy.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:43pm<br/>A little annoyed 😒 but nothing i cant handle</code><br/></dd>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:44pm<br/>R we good?</code><br/></dd><br/></div>Reggie’s response was almost instant, and Carrie felt practically giddy reading it. (Texting with Reggie often had that effect on her.)
<p></p><dd>
  <br/>
  <code>2:44pm<br/>Yeah y wouldnt we b?</code>
  <br/>
</dd><p>Smiling, Carrie responded.</p>
<p></p><div>
<p></p><dd><br/><code>2:45pm<br/>I just wanted 2 b sure. I kno we just started this thing we have, but i want 2 make sure u kno im all in and dont have 2nd thoughts.</code><br/></dd><br/></div>When Reggie only replied with a smug smiley face, Carrie looked at her phone confused. After sending a few question marks, Carrie put her phone down and looked around in confusion. Then, a knock at the door sounded, and Carrie turned to look and found Reggie smiling dazzlingly at her. Her teacher grumpily made his way to the door, and Carrie bit the insides of her cheeks to keep herself from smiling.<p>“Oh, yes, I need to get Carrie Wilson for something? She’s needed at the front office,” Reggie bluffed smoothly. Carrie nearly giggled at how obvious he was being as he comically shoots looks at her every few seconds, but the teacher didn’t care. Grunting, he sent Carrie off. </p>
<p>Carrie gathered her things as quickly as possible, sending a shrug in Flynn’s direction only to get an eye roll and smile combo in return. Once she was done, she joined Reggie in the hallway.</p>
<p>“What are you doing here?” she asked with delight, not caring if it showed on her face.</p>
<p>“<em>Never</em> underestimate the power of apathetic teachers,” Reggie whispered roguishly. Carrie tilted her head back and laughed into her hand. (It honestly wasn’t that funny, but Carrie was a bit intoxicated with Reggie at the moment. For the love of her pink wig, the boy was <em>wooing</em> her.) “I wanted to make sure you were alright,” Reggie said after she had calmed down some.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Carrie replied, “just annoyed. Like, where was all this commitment and chivalry when we were together, and suddenly, I’m doing well for myself, talking to this <em>amazing</em> guy.” Carrie paused to take in Reggie’s proud yet soft face before continuing. “And now he wants to show up? I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>Reggie nodded along to her words, before slowly walking down the hallway. Carrie walked beside him, matching his pace. “So what do you want to do?” he asked eventually, and Carrie contemplated for a moment.</p>
<p>“I want us to talk to him together,” she said eventually though she was quick to follow up. “I need to make it clear that I don’t have any more interest in him, but I also want to be clear that we’re a thing and what that thing is if that makes sense.” Carrie winced as she broke off her words, but Reggie just nodded along with a smile on his face.</p>
<p>“That would mean that we have a talk about what we are,” he replied, seemingly calm though Carrie could swear there was tension in his back.<br/>
“Yeah,” Carrie relented. Taking a deep breath, Carrie prepared herself for the next few words she would say.</p>
<p>“I think we should-”</p>
<p>“I want us to be-” they said at the same time before stopping and giggling at their own antics. Reggie, ever a gentleman, waved his hand to show he conceded the floor to Carrie. Sighing happily, Carrie continued. “I want us to be a thing. That thing doesn’t have to be a couple right now. I want to be taken on a couple of dates first. I want to flirt and enjoy the sensation of butterflies I get in my stomach whenever I get a text from you or whenever you do something to wow me. I want to enjoy the lovesick stage. Does that make sense?”</p>
<p>Reggie smiled without looking at Carrie. “I get it, but I don’t plan on stopping the wooing thing just because we’re dating or whatever,” Reggie drawled. “I plan on giving you flowers or making a breakfast feast or whatever else I have to do to make you smile.”</p>
<p>Carrie felt her cheeks slightly flush in happiness. Reggie just seemed to have the uncanny ability to make her feel like the most important thing in the room. “Why?” Carrie asked a little breathy.</p>
<p>“I like making you smile,” Reggie shrugged like it was the simplest thing in the world and a known fact, and Carrie felt as if her heart had become a fluttering ball of butterflies stretching their wings and tickling her lungs, making it harder to breathe.</p>
<p>For a moment, Carrie just looked at Reggie as he led down the hallway. Finally deciding to break the silence, Carrie asked, “Where are we going?”</p>
<p>At that, Reggie sent her a wicked look that made him look far too devilishly handsome and said, “I’m walking you to your next class.”</p>
<p>Carrie gave herself a little head shake before replying. “You pulled me out of class so you could walk me to my next class? Not really sure I see that logic,” she laughed.</p>
<p>“Well, if I waited for the bell, I would have to share you with everyone in the hallway,” Reggie explained in a faux-sage impression. “This way, I have you all to myself.”</p>
<p>Carrie laughed before she gave a fake scandalized gasp. “Mr. Peters!” she exclaimed playfully. “Are you trying to,” Carrie leaned in and dropped her volume to finish her statement, <em>“get me alone?”</em></p>
<p>“Oh, only to woo properly, my dear Ms. Wilson,” Reggie returned in kind with a hand over his heart as if he were swearing. Carrie would have believed it too if not for the other hand staying paradoxically in his pocket. “I promise I have no ill-intentions.”</p>
<p>“Oh, how disappointing,” Carrie giggled back, nudging Reggie gently in the side. Reggie then wraps his arm around her shoulders.</p>
<p>“You wound me, Ms. Wilson,” he declared to the empty hallway. “Now, you must allow me to lean on you for the rest of the walk.” Laughing out loud with her head tilted back to really let the sound erupt from her mouth, Carrie wrapped one arm around Reggie’s torso while using the other one to try and stifle her laughter. Once Carrie had her arm around Reggie, he pulled her even closer and sighed contently with his head resting on top of her own. “Your laughter sounds heavenly, like handbells.”</p>
<p>“Carrie!” A voice called out, shattering their moment and gaining Carrie’s wrath for the speaker. </p>
<p>Turning around slowly, Carrie crossed her arms in front of her and glared in displeasure at the disruptor. A quick look at Reggie would have told Carrie that he was just as angry though he was also trying very hard to put that aside to be supportive of Carrie. “Nick,” Carrie spat.</p>
<p>As Nick stood in the middle of the hallway, just looking between Carrie and Reggie, she fixed her gaze solely on Nick, daring him to say anything. She really didn’t need to look to Reggie to know he was tense to fight if need be though he seemed to purposefully position himself behind her which Carrie took to mean he was letting her sort this out.</p>
<p>“What do you want?” Carrie demanded in a flat tone. Carrie did her best to remain as neutral and civil as possible. She was, of course, a bit angry that Nick had chosen that moment to pop up, but she was willing to play nice if it got Nick to leave faster.</p>
<p>“Can we talk?” Nick asked awkwardly, sending gesturing looks at Reggie as if he expected Carrie to dismiss him. If she was completely honest, she had to blink a few times to make sure her eyes didn’t twitch.</p>
<p>Carrie didn’t even feel bad when she grinned her most feral gin and grabbed Reggie’s arm and pulled him to her, going so far as to intertwine their fingers together. “Sure, talk,” she chirped with false cheer. Nick had the good sense to appear embarrassed which Carrie counted as a win.</p>
<p>“I meant alone,” Nick said pleadingly, looking down at Carrie’s hand in Reggie’s.</p>
<p>“I know what you meant,” Carrie said plainly, not showing any mercy. “What I don’t know is what you want from me. We broke up.”</p>
<p>Nick sheepishly looked at Carrie while he scratched the back of his head. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk about.”</p>
<p>Reggie’s hand twitched in Carrie’s, and she squeezed his hand in response, a way to reassure him while she calculated her next few words. Carrie felt his gaze fall on her and immediately felt emboldened. “What is there to talk about? You still have feelings for Julie, and I no longer have romantic feelings for you,” she eventually said with a sweet and innocent tone that was anything but. </p>
<p>“You don’t mean that,” Nick insisted, looking frustrated and upset, and Carrie couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him. </p>
<p>“Nick,” Carrie finally sighed and let go of Reggie’s hand. She walked a few steps towards him, sizing him up with a pitying look. “You don’t want a relationship with me. I know because you were more interested in Julie than ever working on our other problems. What you want is for things to go back to normal, to not feel like you wronged me, but that’s not going to happen.” Carrie paused, to see Nick’s resignation as her words sunk in. “You’re not entirely at fault for what happened, I played my part in the dissolution of our relationship, and I <em>am</em> sorry, but it’s time to let this go. Do you understand?”</p>
<p>At this, Nick slowly raised his head. He looked at Carrie, then past Carrie at Reggie, then back to Carrie. “I still think we have a shot,” Nick said back to Carrie.</p>
<p>Carrie gave a sad chuckle and said, “And I don’t know how to show you that we don’t.”</p>
<p>“Because of <em>him</em>?” Nick nodded his head towards Reggie, begrudging resentment clear on his face.</p>
<p>“Among other reasons, yes,” Carrie responded clearly. The bell rang, and any minute the halls would be filled with students headed towards their fifth-period classes. Carrie took a step closer to Nick and spoke again. “And for the record and to maybe make it clear that the best we’ll ever be now is friends, I gave away the flowers you left on my locker.” And with that, Carrie turned back to Reggie and gave him an apologetic look. “Walk me to my next class?”</p>
<p>Just then, the first door swung open, and students began pouring out of their respective classrooms and into the hall. Fully aware that they were being watched by the less than subtle student body, Reggie just smiled at Carrie and offered her his arm. After Carrie took it, he finished escorting her to her Dance class before hurrying to his own English class on the other side of the school.</p>
<p>Throughout her Dance class, Carrie thought she had finally set the problem of Nick to bed. She had made herself clear, and he seemed to understand where she stood. So when Nick approached her outside Music, she expected him to apologize. When he started talking about getting back together, Carrie could feel her jaw clench as her gaze turned red.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Alex IV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After Reggie left their shared Government class, Alex prepared himself to head to Gym. On one hand, he was excited because he shared the class with Willie, but, on the other hand, he was always extremely anxious when heading to Gym <em>because he shared the class with Willie.</em> When the bell rang, he grabbed his things and calmly made his way to the boys’ locker room to change.</p>
<p>As he walked down the halls, he thought about Willie and recent developments that had happened, namely their two dates (as Luke and Reggie called them but Alex wasn’t too sure). It seemed like Willie was into him and liked hanging out with him, but Alex wanted to be sure he wasn’t reading too much into things. As he weighed different factors in his mind almost to the point of spiraling, he didn’t notice his coach calling for him until he placed his hand on his shoulder.</p>
<p>“Alex,” the man said with a bit of annoyance but also worry, his hand still on Alex’s shoulder. “You okay? You seem a bit unfocused.”</p>
<p>“Uh, yeah,” Alex gave non-committally. “Just tired.” Based on the look his coach gave him, Alex didn’t convince anybody.</p>
<p>His coach gave him a disbelieving look but let it go. Instead, his coach handed him a hall pass. “You’ve been called out of this period,” his coach said cryptically before walking away before Alex could ask more questions.</p>
<p>Looking down at the hall pass in his hands, Alex turned around and headed to the Art wing of the school, looking for one of the private studios allocated for private use. Once he got to the right door, he knocked and waited for the door to be opened. When the door was opened, Alex nearly jumped to see Willie with his hair pulled back in a bit of a messy bun. It was really nice.</p>
<p>“Alex? Earth to Alex?” Willie called, giving Alex a weird look. That was when Alex realized that had spaced out over Willie’s hair bun.</p>
<p>Coughing in an attempt to cover his stumble and consequential blush, Alex took the moment to look down at his shoes. Rocking back on his heels and rubbing the back of his neck, Alex started to stammer out a reply. “Y-yeah. Sorry, um, sorry, I just- you’re just, um, what was the question?”</p>
<p>Willie gave a sweet smile before opening the door a bit wider to let Alex into the room. “I have an art show this Friday. I know we talked about you coming, but I thought you might like a sneak peek,” Willie explained as Alex took in the room filled with different pieces of art. Some were finished while most were waiting on finishing touches here or there. Where there wasn’t art, there were art supplies.</p>
<p>“Wow,” Alex whispered in awe, totally enraptured by the art in front of him, especially an oil painting that looked like the outside of the Orpheum at night. “You’re really good.”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” Willie said, smiling warmly, and Alex thought that Willie’s smile was made of sunshine, the soft kind you get in the dawn when the world is slowly transitioning into day. “Alex, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” Willie said seriously. </p>
<p>Immediately, Alex froze and ran a quick list of things that Willie could possibly want to talk to him about. “Okay,” Alex said as calmly as he could with his thoughts racing at thousand miles per hour.</p>
<p>“It’s nothing bad,” Willie hurried to explain. “At least, I hope it’s nothing bad.” Willie paused while he got a space cleared for them to sit. </p>
<p>Taking the sign to take a seat next to Willie, Alex tried to relax as he simultaneously prepared for anything. “Okay, um, what do you want to talk about?” Alex asked with uncertainty. </p>
<p>“Well, we’ve been hanging out a lot lately, and I just want to know what you think is going on,” Willie said cryptically, causing Alex to tense up even more, but before Alex could respond, Willie continued. “I mean, I really like you, and I want to be clear about that, but if you’re not interested or don’t like me like that, I’d like to know now.”</p>
<p>Alex was a little shocked by what Willie just said, but he was able to push out a reply. “I really like you too,” Alex said in a quiet voice before clearing his throat and looking down his hands, only to see how close his hand was to Willie’s. His hand involuntarily flinched to grab Willie’s hand, and Alex winced, pulling his hand back into his own space though Willie didn’t let him go far, linking their fingers together between them.</p>
<p>“I’m really glad, Alex,” Willie whispered with a smile before pulling up Alex’s hand to kiss his fingertips while their hands were still wrapped around each other. Suddenly, Willie got up and tugged Alex over to a corner of the room. “A friend of mine’s ex is giving her grief. He left these flowers on her locker,” Willie narrated as they carefully dodged art and supplies to the corner in question. “She didn’t want them, so she gave them to me.” Willie leaned over and grabbed a bouquet of pink roses. Some of the flowers had gold leaf on their petals while others looked like they had been lightly dipped in gold dust. “I spray painted them and added a few touches here and there, but Alex? Will you be my boyfriend?”</p>
<p>If someone had told Alex that he would be receiving painted roses from his crush while being asked to be his boyfriend, he would have said an uneasy ‘okay’ before slowly walking away, but here he was, looking at the freshly painted flowers, surrounded by Willie’s art, trying to get his mouth to work again so he could accept. “Yes,” Alex said, still a bit dazed in the best way.</p>
<p>(Suddenly, Alex understood what Reggie meant when he said he got buzzed over talking with Carrie. If any word could describe the way he felt as happiness seemed to vibrate in his veins, creating a soft high, it would be buzzed.)</p>
<p>Willie smiled tenderly and kissed Alex’s fingers again. “Wonderful,” Willie said softly before giggling in happiness. The laughter was contagious, and Alex started giggling as well. “So,” Willie began again in a light and teasing tone, “I need a date for my art show this Friday.”</p>
<p>“I’ll be there,” Alex replied dreamily before he made up his mind and surged forward. As he began to kiss Willie, he felt Willie freeze up. Worried he began to back away to apologize before Willie grabbed the back of his neck and pushed himself up to kiss Alex back. It was short and a little awkward, but the kiss was everything Alex thought about for weeks. “That was …”</p>
<p>“Amazing,” Willie finished while he rubbed circles into Alex’s hands. “That was amazing.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Alex agreed. For the rest of the period, they just hung out in the studio. Willie worked on some of his pieces for Friday while Alex admired his new boyfriend. It was a lot like watching him skate, only the possibility of getting hit and knocked down was significantly lower. Eventually, Alex asked, “Hey Willie? How did you get Coach to let us out for the period?”</p>
<p>Willie looked to Alex and said, “I told him I needed your help with some art projects.”</p>
<p>Alex just rolled his eyes. “Oh, so we’re lying to teachers now?” he teased.</p>
<p>“Of course not!” Willie teased back. “You’re my muse! How am I ever supposed to work without you?” </p>
<p>Alex could feel his blush rise in his cheeks as Willie made his way over to where Alex had been lounging and watching Willie. “Willie?” he asked softly.</p>
<p>“Yeah, Alex?” Willie returned, getting closer and closer, reaching out with his hand to push some of Alex’s hair back as it swung into his face.</p>
<p>“Kiss me?” Alex requested, too focused on the actual moment to worry about anything for once.</p>
<p>Willie smiled and leaned in slowly, taking his time to kiss Alex thoroughly like he had all the time in the world to get it right. Pulling back just a little bit, Willie mumbled, “I thought you’d never ask,” before surging right to Alex, kissing him just a bit more firmly. With a sigh, they broke off the kiss.</p>
<p>“How much more time do you think we have?” Alex asked in full contentment. As soon as he got the words out, the bell signaling the end of class rang, and Willie laughed while Alex groaned.</p>
<p>“I think you got your answer, Hotdog,” Willie taunted as Alex got his things together for his final class. Alex rolled his eyes good-naturedly at Willie’s nickname for him. “Make sure to take your flowers.”</p>
<p>“Flowers,” Alex said, stopping immediately. “I can’t take the flowers home.” Looking at Willie in a panic, Alex barely registering the worry he saw on Willie’s face. “My parents.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Julie IV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julie didn’t know what propelled her to ask to write a song with her mystery texting penpal, but something in her just pushed her.</p>
<p>No, that’s a lie. Julie knew exactly what pushed her: her penpal who she hasn’t even learned their name. It was crazy how easy they clicked over text and how much they had in common.</p>
<p>When Julie’s mother died, she took music with her, and Julie forgot how to breathe. Now, with her musical penpal, Julie had finally found her sound again, and it felt like learning how to breathe again. </p>
<p>Julie was ready for the next step: songwriting. The only question was how. She needed a partner, and, for what she had in mind, she couldn’t turn to Carrie or Flynn. That left her penpal whose name she didn’t know and who she had never met. It made Julie a bit more than apprehensive. Thankfully, she already had some words down, and they had already offered to write with her. </p>
<p>So, in the middle of her fifth period, she sent a text message:</p>
<p></p><div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:34pm<br/>i kno i said i dont write anymore but i want to write this song for my friend</code></dd><code><br/>    </code><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:34pm<br/>can u help?</code></dd><code><br/>    </code></div>Julie barely had time to put her phone down when she got a response.<p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <code>2:34pm<br/>when do we start?</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code>
<p>Feeling a bit encouraged, Julie quickly sent back a text message.</p>
<p></p><div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:35pm<br/>could u send some of ur music my way? so i can get a feel for ur style?</code></dd><code><br/>    </code></div>After a few minutes, Julie finally got a reply.<p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <code>2:39pm<br/>i actually have something for u already</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code>
<p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <code>2:39pm<br/>i had this song already but it was missing something and i didnt kno what </code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code>
<p>
  </p>
<p></p><dd>
  <code>2:40pm<br/>then i heard ‘wake up’ and i knew the song was yours</code>
</dd><code><br/>  </code>
<p>Looking at the newest messages, Julie was a little speechless. As a fellow songwriter, Julie knew exactly what her penpal was talking about, but it still felt like an immense compliment being paid to her.</p>
<p></p><div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:41pm<br/>can i c?</code></dd><code><br/>    </code></div>Soon, Julie’s phone was vibrating again; her penpal had sent her pictures of a song called “Bright.” The lyrics were uplifting and determined, and the melody was just in her range. The piano part had obviously been a guitar at some point, but that didn’t make it any less beautiful, and Julie couldn’t wait to get home and try it out.<div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:43pm<br/>its beautiful</code></dd><code><br/>    </code><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:44pm<br/>thank u</code></dd><code><br/>    </code></div>The response was also immediate.
<p></p><dd><br/>  <code>2:45pm<br/>it was meant for u</code><br/></dd><p>The text made Julie smile. Since texting with her penpal, Julie felt so much happier. They had so much in common, namely music, but both had problematic relationships with their mothers and friends they loved more than anything. More than that, they let Julie take her time with them after learning about her mom, and she didn’t feel guilty about it. (Julie wondered about it one time and ultimately chalked it up to their undeniable connection.)</p>
<p></p><div><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:46pm<br/>i hav a poem i want to make into a song for my friend</code></dd><code><br/>    </code><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:47pm<br/>its at home in my dream box</code></dd><code><br/>    </code><p>
    </p>
<p></p><dd><code>2:47pm<br/>can i take pics and send them to u after school?</code></dd><code><br/>    </code></div>Julie realized that it would be easier to write a song together in-person, but she just wasn’t ready for that. Every time she thought about it, she felt her last meal inch up her throat. Thankfully, her penpal seemed to pick up on that and not push it because they simply sent three happy faces with their thumbs up. Rolling her eyes, Julie turned back to her studies.<p>The day seemed to be winding down when she made her way to her Music class. People seemed to glance at her from the corners of their eyes before studiously turning their attention to their phones or lockers or a nearby poster or friend. That, in and of itself, was enough to phase Julie, but what really got to her was the silence. </p>
<p>There were no hushed whispers or significant looks traded between gossip mongers, just silence, as if they were determined not to gossip about her while they were gossiping about her. It was a lot like when her mother had died. Gritting her teeth, Julie resolved to get to music class as fast as possible. Once she reached the door, she saw an anxious Flynn waiting for her at the door.</p>
<p>“Julie!” Flynn exclaimed as she ran up to her, gently trying to hold her back from the classroom. “Don’t go in there, just don’t.”</p>
<p>Confused, Julie tried to give Flynn a reassuring smile as she made her way into the classroom to see what Flynn was freaking out about as Flynn trailed closely behind. What Julie saw in the classroom made her wish she had taken Flynn’s advice. (Frankly, Julie was surprised she didn’t hear them from down the hall.)</p>
<p>“Oh, you are so <em>full of it</em> Nick!” screamed Carrie, her face actually blushing from her anger.</p>
<p>“Why? Because I’m trying to have a conversation with you? Oh, that real mature Carrie!” Nick screamed back, his face twisted into something Julie couldn’t even recognize.</p>
<p>“No, because you are trying to convince me to take you back when nothing has changed! When I am perfectly happy without you! When I’m actually moving on!” Carrie growled sternly. Julie could see she was winding up for the final strike.</p>
<p>“That’s no-” Nick started.</p>
<p>“No Nick! I’m done,” Carrie said crisply. “I’ve tried to be nice about it, but you haven’t gotten the message, so now I’ll be clear. We are no longer dating, and I have no desire to change that. If you can be my friend, great. If you can’t, no skin off my back, but either way, figure it out and move on already!” And with that, Carrie twirled around and stomped to her seat while the other students awkwardly shuffled around.</p>
<p>When Nick saw that Julie was standing in the doorway, watching the end of the argument, he strode over to her quickly. At first, Julie looked around for a way out of the impending conversation, but she realized as soon as as Nick was within reach that she was trapped. “Can you <em>please</em> talk to Carrie?” he asked without preamble.</p>
<p>“I, Nick, I,” Julie stuttered, not knowing how to really answer without further upsetting Nick. </p>
<p>Just then, Ms. Harrison swooped into the room and saved Julie from answering Nick. “Alright everyone, take your seats. We have a busy day ahead of us,” she called as she made her way to her place at the front of the room.</p>
<p>“Got to go,” Julie said as she sped to her seat, dragging Flynn along beside her. </p>
<p>“We’ll talk later,” Nick called after her, and Julie nearly groaned. She realized that Nick probably wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon, but at least class gave her some breathing room until she could talk to Carrie and see what was going on.</p>
<p>A quick look to Carrie, and Julie saw that she was staring directly ahead towards Ms. Harrison, not a single clue to what was lying behind that perfectly controlled exterior. Stifling a sigh, Julie came to the startling understanding that she had somehow stepped into it big time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Willie I</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I also added another scene at the end of Chapter 19. You can read it if you like, but I tried to add it in a way that it wasn't totally necessary if people had already read that chapter. It was just a really cool scene that I was going to lose otherwise.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Willie had been into Alex for a while now. He just didn’t act on it because he wasn’t sure if Alex felt the same way or if he was even gay. The dude kind of played close to the chest. Eventually, he decided he had to get bolder, so he gifted Alex a fidget toy. </p><p>He had seen Alex with one a handful of times (a testament to how much Willie like to watch him) and thought it was worth a shot. When Alex had treated it with the reverence one usually only reserved for a gift from God, Willie thought he might have a shot. So he kept getting bigger and bigger, going so far as to help his friend move out of his house.</p><p>When Carrie had gifted some roses Nick had left on her locker (Willie felt for the guy, really he did, but he couldn’t help but feel he also kind of deserved it.), Willie was actually running out of ideas. Thankfully, he was working on his artwork for his upcoming show when she donated the flowers to the cause. </p><p>It only took a little sweet-talking Coach to get them both excused for the period. So Willie waited for Alex in his assigned work studio, double-checking the roses before setting about looking like he wasn’t waiting for Alex nervously. (When Willie opened the door and Alex seemed to space out for a hot second, Willie had to physically will himself not to preen in his gaze.) </p><p>After being invited in, Alex looked around at Willie’s artwork, and it seemed like everything was falling right into place. Willie was still riding the high of kissing Alex when he came crashing down. Suddenly, it made sense why Alex played everything close to the chest.</p><p>“What do you mean?” Willie asked when Alex fearfully mentioned his parents. To be honest, Willie was a bit uneasy at that point. Being in the closet was usually a deal-breaker for Willie. (Not anything against people in the closet. Whatever you needed to do to be safe. He just couldn’t imagine a relationship in the shadows.)</p><p>“It’s just-” Alex started before sighing, taking a deep breath, and starting again. “They know I’m gay. They just … they’re not … supportive,” Alex finally got out. Alex pushed the heel of his hand across his cheek, and Willie realized that Alex was near tears (if not already there). Quickly, all of his worries went running out of his head to make way for his newest mission objection: Make Alex smile again.</p><p>Still not completely sure what he was working with here, Willie went to work with what he did know. “Okay,” he said as he looked around the room. Spotting a good-sized glass jar holding some paintbrushes, Willie quickly grabbed it and brought it to Alex. “Why don’t you keep them here and put them in this?”</p><p>Willie watched with bated breath as Alex sadly held the jar in his hands, turning it over a few times before sighing. “It’s too small,” Alex said dejectedly, and Willie realized he was right. Even if he trimmed the roses (which he really didn’t want to do), the whole bouquet wouldn’t fit.</p><p>“Okay, okay, well …” Willie trailed off, looking around desperately for something that might work. Willie only paused when he felt Alex grab his shirt.</p><p>Turning to face him, Willie saw Alex with his head hung low. “I’m sorry,” Alex whispered so softly Willie almost didn’t hear it.</p><p>“Alex,” Willie started, reaching out to pull Alex into a hug, but stopped when Alex jerked away.</p><p>“This is all my fault,” Alex sobbed, and Willie felt as if someone had stomped straight down on his heart.</p><p>“No, Alex, no,” Willie said, again reaching out for him, but Alex just moved farther away, grabbing his stuff. “Alex, what are you doing? Let’s talk about this.”</p><p>“I’m sorry. This was a mistake,” Alex said, as he hurried to the door.</p><p>“What? Alex-” Willie said as he began to try and talk Alex down, but Alex was already out the door and down the hall (still crying if the way he kept his down was any indication) before Willie could even really process what was going on.</p><p>Standing alone, Willie tried to make sense of what had just happened. By his math, he had a really nice time with his crush of an embarrassingly long time, had gotten a boyfriend, and lost his new boyfriend in the time span of one class period.</p><p>Walking along to his last class of the day, Willie looked around the hallway without really seeing anyone around him. It was all the same: gossipping girls at their lockers, a teacher scowling from their doorway, freshmen pushing their way to class. Nothing enough to catch his attention for more than a few moments before he once again turned to introspection.</p><p>Suddenly, a hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder.</p><p>“Hey, Willie,” Luke said in a concerned voice, “what’s going on? Both you and Alex seem out of it.”</p><p>Willie looked at Luke and just shook his head, knowing he would start crying if he talked about it right then.</p><p>Luke sighed and looked around. “Look, I have to get to History, but let’s talk about this after school. Okay? I’ll make sure Alex is there.” Not really thinking about it, Willie just nodded and continued to his English class, leaving Luke behind him with a worried look on his face. </p><p>He was a little late, but his usual English teacher was out on maternity leave, leaving a sub in her place, so it was no big deal. Over the class period, Willie worked on the busy work the sub handed out, using it as a distraction from what was still on his mind. Every so often, the sub would walk around the room and help students. She would hover around Willie and ask him if he was doing alright to which he just shrugged noncommittally.</p><p>At the end of class, Willie sluggishly gathered his things, ready to just go skate the streets of Hollywood. Just as he was standing up, the sub approached him. “Willie, right?” she asked gently.</p><p>Willie gave a half-hearted nod, and the sub smiled brightly yet not obnoxiously.</p><p>“I just noticed you were a bit checked out in class. Is everything alright?” she asked kindly. It was well-meaning, and, in a better scenario, Willie might have even been thankful for the check-in, but Willie just wanted to go home.</p><p>“I’m fine, just having a bit of day,” Willie said as politely as possible, trying to get the sub off his back.</p><p>In return, the sub gave a smile that said ‘I know you’re lying but I’ll let it go for now.’ “Okay, well if I can help in any way, let me know,” she said with a smile as she sent Willie off. With that interaction done with, Willie set out down the hall to his locker where he had his skateboard stashed.</p><p>“Willie!” Luke shouted behind him. Willie slowed to a stop before turning to face Luke.</p><p>“S’up?” Willie asked blandly as Luke caught up to him in the hall, not really feeling up for talking to anyone at the moment.</p><p>“Look, I talked to Alex, I know what happened,” Luke said once he was close enough. “I’m so sorry for what happened, but you have to understand. Alex’s parents .... their like <em>old school</em> old school. Like they give Alex a hard time about Creative Writing instead something like Workshop like Reggie.” Luke paused to catch his breath, and Willie took the chance to speak up.</p><p>“Luke, Alex broke up with me, not the other way around,” Willie said, crossing his arms. It still stung that Alex would just walk out like that.</p><p>“He didn’t break up with you! At least, he didn’t mean to. Look, I know he messed up, but it’s only cause his parents are like this close to sending him off to some private Christian boarding school in Utah,” Luke spouted, looking panicked as all get out. “Alex feels awful for everything, but he won’t talk to you because he’s convinced you hate him and that he’d just make things worse.”</p><p>After thinking about it for a few minutes, Willie eventually nodded. “Okay. Tell him to meet me at my art show Friday.” </p><p>“Thanks Willie! You won’t regret this!” Luke shouted over his shoulder as he ran off (presumably to tell Alex).</p><p>Willie smiled at Luke’s antics and continued his way to his locker. Yeah, things with Alex had gotten a little messy, but Willie was starting to think everything was going to work out. The situation with Alex’s parents wasn’t ideal, but it was workable. (Parents tended not to like Willie anyway, so no big loss there.) Grabbing his skateboard, Willie went flying down the streets of Hollywood.</p>
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